Substrate processing apparatus

ABSTRACT

A transfer apparatus for transporting substrates in a transfer chamber having a first and second ends and two sides extending between the ends. The transfer apparatus includes a drive section, at least one base arm fixed at one end with respect to the transfer chamber and including at least one arm link rotatably coupled to the drive section and at least one transfer arm rotatably coupled to a common end of the base arm, the at least one transfer arm has two end effectors. The drive section has motors with three independent axes of rotation defining three degrees of freedom. One degree of freedom moves the at least one base arm horizontally for transporting the at least one transfer arm and two degrees of freedom drives the at least one transfer arm to extend and retract the at least one transfer arm and swap the two end effectors.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/377,987 filed on Aug. 11, 2014, which is the National Stage ofInternational Application No. PCT/US2013/025513 having an InternationalFiling Date of 11 Feb. 2013, which designated the United States ofAmerica, and which International Application was published under PCTArticle 21 (s) as WO Publication 2013/120054 A1 and which claimspriority from, and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/597,507 filed on Feb. 10, 2012; 61/660,900 filed on Jun. 18,2012; and 61/662,690 filed on Jun. 21, 2012, the disclosures of whichare incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The exemplary embodiments generally relate to robotic transportapparatus and, more particularly, to robotic transport apparatus fortransporting substrates to multiple substrate holding locations.

2. Brief Description of Related Developments

Generally in robotic transport systems that transport substrates tomultiple substrate holding locations arranged side by side such as, forexample, in a linearly elongated transfer chamber more than one transferrobot is used such that the substrate is handed off from one robot toanother along the length of the linearly elongated transfer chamber. Inanother aspect a single robotic transport that is mounted to a linearslide is used to transport substrates through the linearly elongatedtransfer chamber.

It would be advantageous to be able to transport substrates betweenmultiple linearly arranged and/or side by side substrate holdinglocations without handing off substrates between transfer robots andwithout the use of a linear slide reducing the interfaces to the sealedenvironment within the transfer chamber.

Further, generally with cluster type tool arrangements the substrateholding locations are communicably coupled to a common main transferchamber.

It would also be advantageous to be able to seal portions of thetransfer chamber for the cluster tool from other portions of thetransfer chamber. The advantages thereof are of special significance inview of tool architecture for processing 450 mm semiconductor wafers andthe dimensional increases associated therewith throughout the toolconfiguration.

In addition, generally original equipment manufacturers/processsuppliers link vacuum cluster tools with atmospheric equipment front endmodule (EFEM) loaders to provide a way to maintain a clean environmentfor transporting the wafers from mobile storage carriers to the processmodules. During each wafer's cycle into the process chamber it transfersfrom atmosphere to vacuum and then back to atmosphere. In some cases,after processed wafers are exposed to atmosphere, they react with humidair and may become acidic and promote damage to wafers and handlingequipment.

It would further be advantageous to connect existing process modulesand/or cluster tools to maintain a controlled environment duringsubstrate transport between adjacent tools. It would also beadvantageous to remotely locate the EFEM from the processingchambers/cluster tools.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and other features of the disclosed embodimentsare explained in the following description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a processing apparatus inaccordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 2A is a schematic illustration of a transport apparatus inaccordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 2B-2D are schematic illustrations of portions of the transportapparatus of FIG. 2A in accordance with an aspect of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 2E and 2F are schematic illustrations of transport apparatus inaccordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 2G is a schematic illustration of a portion of a processingapparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 2H-2J are schematic illustrations of a portion of a transportapparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic illustrations of a portion of a processingapparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are schematic illustrations of a portion of a processingapparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D are schematic illustrations of differentprocessing apparatus configurations in accordance with aspects of thedisclosed embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of a processing apparatus inaccordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 6A is a schematic illustration of a portion of a transportapparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 7A is a schematic illustration of a transport apparatus inaccordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 7B is a schematic illustration of a portion of the transportapparatus of FIG. 7A in accordance with an aspect of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 7C-7E are schematic illustrations of a portion of a transportapparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C are schematic illustrations of a portion of aprocessing apparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 9A, 9B and 9C are schematic illustrations of a portion of aprocessing apparatus in accordance with an aspect of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 10A, 10B, 10C and 10D are schematic illustrations of differentprocessing apparatus configurations in accordance with aspects of thedisclosed embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 11A-11C are schematic illustrations of a portion of a processingapparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 13A is a schematic illustration of a portion of a process apparatusin accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 14A is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus inaccordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 19 is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 19A is a schematic illustration of a process apparatus inaccordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 20A, 20B, 20C, 20D and 20E are schematic illustrations of portionsof a processing apparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 21A, 21B and 21C are schematic illustrations of processingapparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 22A, 22B and 22C are schematic illustrations of processingapparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 23A and 23B are schematic illustrations of processing apparatus inaccordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C and 24D are schematic illustrations of a portion ofa processing tool in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 25A and 25B are schematic illustrations of a transport tunnel inaccordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 26A, 26B, and 26C are schematic illustrations of portions of atransport tunnel in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiments;

FIGS. 27A and 27B are schematic illustrations of a transport tunnel inaccordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 28A, 28B, and 28C are schematic illustrations of portions of atransport tunnel in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 29 is a schematic illustration of a substrate transport cart inaccordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 30A and 30B are schematic illustrations of a substrate transportcart in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 31A, 31B and 31C are schematic illustrations of portions of aprocessing apparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment;

FIG. 32 is a schematic illustration of a portion of a processingapparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIG. 33 is a schematic illustration of a portion of a processingapparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment;

FIGS. 34A and 34B are schematic illustrations of a portion of aprocessing apparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 35A, 35B and 35C are schematic illustrations of a portion of aprocessing apparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment;

FIGS. 36A, 36B, 36C and 36D are schematic illustrations of a portion ofa processing apparatus in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment; and

FIG. 37 is a schematic illustration of a transport apparatus inaccordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The processing apparatus described herein in accordance with the aspectsof the disclosed embodiment include one or more transfer robots thatallow the transport of substrates to at least two processing stations ina sequential linear arrangement using a stationary drive section. Theaspects of the disclosed embodiment allow for a linear robotarchitecture without using linear bearings or linear motors whileallowing the use of a static vacuum seal (when the robot is used in avacuum environment) for the rotary axes which are all maintained in acommon base or drive section of the transfer robot. The aspects of thedisclosed embodiment also allow for the transfer of substrates betweenrectilinearly arranged or clustered processing stations and load locks(generally referred to herein as substrate holding stations) using oneor more transfer robots having a stationary base. Although the aspectsof the disclosed embodiment will be described with reference to thedrawings, it should be understood that the aspects of the disclosedembodiment can be embodied in many alternate forms. In addition, anysuitable size, shape or type of elements or materials could be used.

Referring to FIG. 1, the processing apparatus, such as for example asemiconductor tool station 100 is shown in accordance with an aspect ofthe disclosed embodiment. Although a semiconductor tool is shown in thedrawings, the aspects of the disclosed embodiment described herein canbe applied to any tool station or application employing roboticmanipulators. In this aspect the tool 100 is shown as what may bereferred to for purposes of description as a cluster type tool having alinearly elongated transfer chamber (illustrated as an elongated dualcluster transfer chamber), however the aspects of the disclosedembodiments may be applied to any suitable tool station such as, forexample, a linear tool station such as those described U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/442,511, entitled “Linearly DistributedSemiconductor Workpiece Processing Tool,” filed May 26, 2006, thedisclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.The tool station 100 generally includes an atmospheric front end 101,one or more vacuum load locks 102 and a vacuum back end 103. In otheraspects, the tool station 100 may have any suitable configuration. Thecomponents of each of the front end 101, load lock(s) 102 and back end103 may be connected to a controller 120 which may be part of anysuitable control architecture such as, for example, a clusteredarchitecture control. The control system may be a closed loop controllerhaving a master controller, cluster controllers and autonomous remotecontrollers such as those disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/178,615, entitled “Scalable Motion Control System,” filed Jul. 11,2005, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety. In other aspects, any suitable controller and/or controlsystem may be utilized.

In the aspects of the disclosed embodiment, the front end 101 generallyincludes load port modules 105 and a mini-environment 106 such as forexample an equipment front end module (EFEM). The load port modules 105may be box opener/loader to tool standard (BOLTS) interfaces thatconform to SEMI standards E15.1, E47.1, E62, E19.5 or E1.9 for 300 mmload ports, front opening or bottom opening boxes/pods and cassettes. Inother aspects, the load port modules may be configured as 200 mm, 300 mmor 450 mm wafer interfaces or any other suitable substrate interfacessuch as, for example, larger or smaller wafers or flat panels for flatpanel displays, light emitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes orsolar arrays. Accordingly, the other components and associated features,as will be described in greater detail below, may be respectivelyconfigured for interfacing or operating on or with the correspondingwafers or workpieces. Although three load port modules are shown in FIG.1, in other aspects any suitable number of load port modules may beincorporated into the front end 101. The load port modules 105 may beconfigured to receive substrate carriers or cassettes 110 from anoverhead transport system, automatic guided vehicles, person guidedvehicles, rail guided vehicles or from any other suitable transportmethod. The load port modules 105 may interface with themini-environment 106 through load ports 104. The load ports 104 mayallow the passage of substrates between the substrate cassettes 110 andthe mini-environment 106.

The mini-environment 106 generally includes any suitable transfer robot113. In one aspect of the disclosed embodiment the robot 113 may be atrack mounted robot such as that described in, for example, U.S. Pat.No. 6,002,840, the disclosure of which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety. In other aspects the transfer robot may besubstantially similar to the transfer robot 130 within the vacuum backend 103 which will be described in greater detail below. Themini-environment 106 may provide, for example, a controlled, clean zonefor substrate transfer between multiple load port modules.

The vacuum load lock 102 may be located between and connected to themini-environment 106 and the back end 103. The load lock 102 generallyincludes atmospheric and vacuum slot valves. The slot valves may providethe environmental isolation employed to evacuate the load lock afterloading a substrate from the atmospheric front end and to maintain thevacuum in the transfer chamber when venting the lock with an inert gassuch as nitrogen. The load lock 102 may also include an aligner foraligning a fiducial of the substrate to a desired position forprocessing and/or any other suitable substrate processing features suchas heating, cooling, etc. In other aspects, the vacuum load lock may belocated in any suitable location of the processing apparatus and haveany suitable configuration. It is noted that the load lock(s) may bestacked above one another in a substantially vertical row or arranged ina two dimensional array as will be described in greater detail belowwith respect to FIGS. 11A-11C so that the number of load locks can beincreased substantially without increasing a footprint of the tool 100.

The vacuum back end 103 generally includes a transfer chamber 125, oneor more processing station(s), generally referred to as processingstation(s) 140, and one or more transfer robot(s) 130. It is noted thatthe processing stations may also be stacked above one another in asubstantially vertical row or arranged in a two dimensional array aswill be described in greater detail below with respect to FIGS. 11A-11C.The transfer robot 130 will be described below and may be located withinthe transfer chamber 125 to transport substrates between the load lock102 and the various processing stations 140. The processing stations 140may operate on the substrates through various deposition, etching, orother types of processes to form electrical circuitry or other desiredstructure on the substrates. Typical processes include but are notlimited to thin film processes that use a vacuum such as plasma etch orother etching processes, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), metal organicchemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), plasma vapor deposition (PVD),implantation such as ion implantation, metrology, rapid thermalprocessing (RTP), dry strip atomic layer deposition (ALD),oxidation/diffusion, forming of nitrides, vacuum lithography, epitaxy(EPI), wire bonder and evaporation or other thin film processes that usevacuum pressures. The processing stations 140 are connected to thetransfer chamber 125 to allow substrates to be passed from the transferchamber 125 to the processing stations 140 and vice versa.

Referring now to FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D the transfer robot 130generally includes a drive section 200, a mounting flange 202 configuredfor mounting the transfer robot 130 in one of the atmospheric front end101 or vacuum back end 103, and a transfer arm section 210.

The transfer arm section 210 may include a base arm link or boom 220 anda transfer arm 214 mounted to the base arm link 220. The base arm link220 is shown as a single link with a pivot axis X at a proximal end anda pivot axis SX on a distal end (the terms “proximal” and “distal” arerelative terms with respect to the noted reference frame). The base armlink 220 is substantially rigid, without articulating joints, in betweenthe pivot axes and shall be referred to herein as being a monolink fordescription purposes. It is noted that the other arm “links” describedherein are substantially similar to the base arm link 220 in that theytoo may be considered monolinks. The base arm link 220 may have anysuitable length L and configuration. In one aspect a substrate aligner230 (e.g. for positioning an alignment feature of the substrate in apredetermined position) may be mounted to the base arm link 220 at anysuitable location for allowing the transfer arm 214 to transfersubstrates to and from the aligner 230.

The transfer arm 214 may be rotatably mounted to the base arm link 220at a shoulder axis SX. As may be realized, and as shown in FIG. 2D, thetransfer arm may be mounted on either horizontal surface of the base armlink 220 (e.g. top and/or bottom where the terms “top” and “bottom” arerelative terms that depend on whether the transfer arm is mounted to thetop TCT or bottom TCB of the transfer chamber TC, see FIG. 2G). Forexemplary purposes only, in FIG. 2D transfer arm 214 is shown mounted toa top of the base arm link 220 while transfer arm 214′ is shown mountedto bottom of the base arm link. It is noted that either of transfer arms214, 214′ or both transfer arms 214, 214′ may be mounted to the base armlink 220. As may be realized, where two transfer arms are mounted to thesame base arm link, the drive section 200 may include a single driveaxis for rotating the base arm link 220 and two drive axes for each ofthe two transfer arms where the transfer arm links of the respectivetransfer arms are connected to the respective drive axes in a mannersubstantially similar to that described below (e.g. where a suitablenumber of drive shafts and transmissions are added to the coaxial driveshaft arrangement to drive the two transfer arms on one base arm link).In other aspects the transfer arms may be driven by any suitable numberof drive axes. Multiple transfer robots may also be provided within asingle transfer chamber in a manner substantially similar to thatdescribed below. As may also be realized, where two or more transferarms (and/or two or more transfer robots—see FIGS. 2G, 2F, 13, 14 and15-18) are located in a transfer chamber the controller for the transferarms/robots, such as controller 120, may be configured to operate thetransfer arms/robots so that the operation of one arm/robot does notinterfere with the operation of another one of the arms/robots.

The transfer arm 214 may be any suitable transfer arm including, but notlimited to, selective compliant articulated robot arms (SCARA arms),frog leg arms, leapfrog arms, bi-symmetric arms, lost motion mechanicalswitch type arms or any other suitable arm having one or more endeffectors where the arm may be driven using a two degree of freedomdrive. The end effectors may be configured to hold a single substrate ormultiple substrates in a horizontally side-by-side arrangement and/or avertically stacked arrangement or any combination thereof when multipletransfer arms are provided. Suitable examples of transfer arms that canbe used or adapted for use with the aspects of the disclosed embodimentinclude those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/179,762(previously incorporated by reference herein) and Ser. No. 12/117,415filed on May 8, 2008 as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,899,658; 5,720,590;5,180,276; 5,743,704; 6,299,404; 5,647,724; 6,485,250; and 7,946,800 thedisclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties. In other aspects the transfer arm may be driven by a drivehaving any suitable number of degrees of freedom. It is noted that thetransfer arm section will be referred to generally herein as transferarm section 210 and illustrated in the various figures as havingdifferent transfer arm configurations. For example, in FIG. 2A thetransfer arm 214 is illustrated as a SCARA type arm having an upper armlink 213, a forearm link 212 rotatably coupled to the upper arm 213about an elbow axis E and an end effector 211 rotatably coupled to theforearm link 212 about a wrist axis W, but as noted above, the transferarm may be any suitable type arm having two degrees of freedom and oneor more end effectors, e.g. where the rotation of the end effector isslaved to the upper arm link to follow a path of extension andretraction of the arm. In other aspects the transfer arm may have threedegrees of freedom where each of the upper arm link, forearm link andend effector are independently rotatable.

In one aspect, the drive section 200 may include, for example, a housing201 configured to house any suitable tri-axial drive system, or anyother suitable drive system, having coaxial drive motors or horizontallyoffset drive motors that drive a coaxial drive shaft arrangement. Inother aspects the drive motors may have any suitable spatial arrangementrelative to each other. The drive section may include drive motor 1701MBfor rotationally driving the base arm link 220 about axis X, a drivemotor 1701MU for rotationally driving the upper arm link 213 aboutshoulder axis SX and a drive motor 1701MF for rotationally driving theforearm link 212 about the elbow axis E. In other aspects, the drivesection 200 may include any suitable number of drive motors and anysuitable number of corresponding shafts in the coaxial drive shaftarrangement.

As may be realized, one drive axis may be used to rotate and/or extendthe base arm 220 while the other two drive axes may be used to extend,retract and rotate the transfer arm 214 independently of the base arm220. In other aspects, where the transfer arm has three degrees offreedom the drive section may include four drive motors having anysuitable configuration (e.g. one drive axis may be used to rotate and/orextend the base arm 220 while the other three drive axes may be used toextend, retract and rotate the transfer arm 214 independently of thebase arm 220). Suitable examples of drive systems that can be used oradapted for use with the aspects of the disclosed embodiment includethose described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/179,762 filed onJul. 11, 2005, Ser. No. 13/270,844 filed on Oct. 11, 2011 and Ser. No.12/163,996 filed on Jun. 27, 2008, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,891,935, 6,845,250,5,899,658, 5,813,823 and 5,720,590 as well as U.S. provisional patentapplications 61/391,380 filed on Oct. 8, 2010 and 61/490,864 filed onMay 27, 2011, the disclosures of which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entireties. In other aspects the drive section may beany suitable drive section having any suitable number of drive axes,such as for example, the drive motors may be integrated into walls ofthe transfer chamber, one or more drive motors may be located within thearm links and/or mounted to joints of the arm for driving the transferarm 214 where, for example a harmonic drive (or any other suitabledrive) is disposed for driving the base arm link 220, as will bedescribed in greater detail below and in a manner substantially similarto those described in U.S. provisional patent applications 61/507,276filed on Jul. 13, 2011 and 61/510,819 filed on Jul. 22, 2011, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/270,844 filed on Oct. 11, 2011 and U.S.Pat. No. 7,578,649, the disclosures of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. In one aspect the drive section200 may also include a Z-axis drive 203 for linearly moving the transferarm section 210 in a direction substantially perpendicular to an axis ofextension and retraction of the transfer arm section 210. Where the loadlocks and processing stations are stacked one above the other, asdescribed herein, the Z-axis drive 203 may be configured to providesufficient travel to transfer substrates to the different levels ofstacked load locks and/or processing stations. A bellows or othersuitable flexible sealing member 250 may be disposed between the drivesection 200 and the mounting flange 202 to allow for Z-axis movement(see arrow 299) while maintaining the sealed or controlled atmosphere inwhich the transfer arm section 210 operates (e.g. the sealed environmentof the transfer chamber 125 or controlled environment of the EFEM 106).In other aspects the drive section 200 may not have a Z-axis drive.

Referring to FIG. 2B, in one aspect the motors (201MB, 201MU, 201MF—seeFIG. 2D) of the drive section 200 may be configured to drive a coaxialdrive shaft arrangement having an inner drive shaft 262, a middle driveshaft 261 and an outer drive shaft 260. Any suitable encoders may beprovided along with the motors and/or drive shafts for tracking therotation of the drive shafts and for sending suitable signals to, e.g.controller 120 for controlling rotation of the shafts and correspondingarm links. One or more of the drive motors may be a harmonic drive motorsubstantially similar to that described in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/270,844 filed on Oct. 11, 2011, the disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety. As noted above wheretwo transfer arms are mounted on a single base arm link two additionaldrive shafts may be added to the coaxial drive shaft arrangement fordriving the additional transfer arm through transmissions substantiallysimilar to those described below. The outer drive shaft 260 may becoupled to the base arm link 220 so that as the outer drive shaft 260rotates the base arm link 220 rotates with it. In one aspect the basearm link 220 may be configured for substantially infinite rotation aboutaxis X to allow substantially 360 degree placement of the shoulder axisSX relative to the axes X. The middle drive shaft may be coupled to afirst drive axis pulley 280 so that as the middle drive shaft 261rotates the first drive axis pulley 280 rotates with it. The inner driveshaft 262 may be coupled to a second drive axis pulley 281 so that asthe inner drive shaft 262 rotates the second drive axis pulley rotateswith it. A second coaxial shaft arrangement may be rotatably mounted atleast partly within the base arm link 220 at an end of the base arm link220 distal from an axis of rotation X of the base arm link 220. Thesecond coaxial shaft arrangement includes an outer drive shaft 271 andan inner drive shaft 270. The inner drive shaft 270 may be coupled to afirst shoulder pulley 282 so that as the pulley 282 rotates the innerdrive shaft 270 rotates with it. The outer drive shaft 271 may becoupled to a second shoulder pulley 283 so that as the second shoulderpulley 283 rotates the outer drive shaft rotates with it. The innerdrive shaft 270 (its pulley 282) and outer drive shaft 271 (and itspulleys 283) may be supported from the base arm link in any suitablemanner, such as by one or more suitable bearings SXB, so they arerotatable independent of each other and rotatable independent of thebase arm link 220. The first shoulder pulley 282 may be coupled to thefirst drive axis pulley 280 by any suitable transmission 291 such as,for example, belts, bands, etc. so that the inner drive shaft 270 isdriven by a motor of the drive section 200 corresponding to the middledrive shaft 261. The second shoulder pulley 283 may be coupled to thesecond drive axis pulley 281 by any suitable transmission 290, which maybe substantially similar to transmission 291, so that the outer driveshaft 271 is driven by a motor of the drive section 200 corresponding tothe inner drive shaft 262. It is noted that one aspect the pulley pairs280, 282 and 281, 283 may each have a one to one (1:1) drive ratio whilein other aspects the pulley pairs may have any other suitable driveratio. The outer drive shaft 271 and inner drive shaft 270 may becoupled to the transfer arm 214 in any suitable manner for causing thetransfer arm to extend and retract or rotate as a unit about theshoulder axis SX. For example, with respect to the SCARA arm shown inFIG. 2A the outer shaft 271 may be coupled to the upper arm link 213 andthe inner shaft 270 may be coupled to the forearm link 212 where the endeffector is slaved to the upper arm so that it remains substantiallyaligned with the axis of extension and retraction of the transfer arm214. It is noted that the combined rotation of the shafts 270, 271 mayallow for substantially infinite rotation (e.g. more than about 360degrees) or otherwise may allow rotation of the transfer arm 214independent of rotation of the base arm link 220 so that the transferarm 214 can extend along any desired path relative to the base arm 220.

Referring to FIG. 2E, in another aspect, the drive motors 201MB, 201MU,201MF may be distributed along the transfer arm section 210 in a mannersubstantially similar to that described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,578,649, thedisclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.For example, a single motor 201MB (which may be a harmonic drive motor)may be located about or adjacent axis X for rotatably driving the basearm link 220. The motor 201MU for driving the upper arm link 213 of thetransfer arm 214 may be located on the base arm link 220 at the shoulderaxis SX for substantially directly driving (or driving through anysuitable transmission) the upper arm link 213. The motor 201MF fordriving the forearm link 212 of the transfer arm 214 may be located onthe upper arm link 213 at the elbow axis E for substantially directlydriving (or driving through any suitable transmission) the forearm link212. As may be realized in one aspect the end effector 211 may be slavedto the upper arm while in another aspect an additional drive motor maybe provided at any suitable location for independently rotating the endeffector 211.

Referring to FIGS. 2H, 21 and 2J the drive motor 201MB (which may be aharmonic drive motor) for rotatably driving the base arm link 220 may belocated about or adjacent the axis X as described above. The motors201MU and 201MF for rotatably driving the upper arm link 213 and forearmlink 212 of the transfer arm 214 may be included in a motor module 201Mthat is removably mounted to an end of the base arm link 220 (e.g.substantially in-line with the base arm link 220) so as to form part ofthe base arm link. The motor module 201M may include a housing 201MHhaving an interface section 201MS. The motor module 201M may alsoinclude any suitable covers and shields (not shown) and seals 201SS,such as for example ferro-fluidic seals, for sealing at least portionsof an interior of the motor module (as described above) and forsubstantially preventing any particles generated by the motor modulefrom contaminating the processing environment and substrates locatedtherein. The interface section 201MS may be configured for removablymounting the motor module 201M to the base arm link 220 in any suitablemanner. In one aspect, any suitable seal(s) 289 may be provided betweenthe interface section 201MS and the base arm so that at least a portionof the interior of the motor module 201M may be maintained atsubstantially the same pressure and atmosphere as the interior of thebase arm 220, as will be described below. In this aspect the motormodule includes motors 201MU and 201MF arranged coaxially one above theother for driving respective shafts 270′, 271′ of a coaxial shaftarrangement. Motor 201MU may include a stator 201MUS mounted to thehousing 201MH and rotor 201MUR mounted to the shaft 271′. Motor 201MFmay include a stator 201MFS mounted to the housing 201MH and rotor201MFR mounted to shaft 270′. Seals or sleeves 245 may be provided foreach of the stators 201MUS, 201MFS for sealing an environment in whichthe stators are located from an environment in which the rotors arelocated to allow the module 201M to be used in a vacuum environmentwhere the drive shafts and rotors are located within the vacuumenvironment and the stators are located outside the vacuum environment.As may be realized, where the module 201M is used in an atmosphericenvironment the seals 245 need not be provided.

The shaft 270′ may be the inner shaft and may be rotatably supported bythe housing 201MH through any suitable bearings 241. The shaft 271′ maybe the outer shaft and may be rotatably supported within the housing201MH by any suitable bearings 242. It is noted that the bearings 242 ofthe outer shaft 271′ may be supported by the bearings 241 of the innershaft 270′ (e.g. the outer shaft is coupled to the inner shaft bearings)in any suitable manner. One example, of such a support arrangement isprovided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/417,837 filed on Mar.12, 2012, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety. Supporting the outer shaft 271′ with the bearings of theinner shaft 270′ maintains alignment of the shafts 270′, 271′ allowingthe motor module 201M to be modular and removable substantially withouthaving to align the shafts once the motor module 201M is mounted to thebase arm link 220.

Any suitable encoders 240A, 240B may be provided and may be suitablymounted to the housing 201MH (and encoder tracks mounted to the driveshafts) for tracking rotational movement of the shafts 270′, 271′. Theencoders 240A, 240B may be connected to a suitable controller, such ascontroller 120 for sending suitable encoder signals to the controllerfor controlling rotation of the respective drive shafts and arm links.As may be realized, the housing 201MH may include an aperture through,for example, the interface section 201MS for allowing suitable controlwires for the encoders 240A, 240B and the motors 201MU, 201MF to passfor connection to the controller 120. As noted above, the interior ofthe base arm link 220 may be maintained as a non-vacuum environment toallow for the passage of the wires through the base arm link 220 to thecontroller 120. In other aspects the encoders and motors may beconnected to the controller through any suitable wireless connection.

Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B a portion of a processing apparatus isshown in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment. Here thetransfer chamber 126 is a linearly elongated transfer chambersubstantially similar to transfer chamber 125, however transfer chamber126 is configured to have a processing station 140 configurationdifferent than transfer chamber 125. For example, both ends of thetransfer chamber 126 are substantially identical such that each end iscapable of interfacing with either two processing stations 140A, 140B ortwo load locks 102A, 102B (or a combination thereof) while the ends ofthe transfer chamber 125 are different from one another such that oneend is capable of interfacing with either two load locks (shown inFIG. 1) or two process modules (not shown) and the other end isconfigured to interface with three process modules 140A, 140B, 140C orone load lock (see FIG. 5B). It should be understood that in otheraspects the transfer chambers may have any suitable configuration forattaching any suitable number of process modules and/or load locks inany suitable arrangement. In the aspects of the disclosed embodimentshown in FIGS. 1, 3A and 3B the transfer chamber 125, 126 is of asufficient length so that two process modules 140 are linearly disposedon each lateral side of the transfer chamber 125, 126. The transferrobot 130 may be disposed within the transfer chamber 125, 126 so thatthe drive axis of rotation X is located substantially between substratetransport paths TP into the process modules 140S1, 140S2 and 140S3,140S4. The drive axis X may also be offset from a centerline CL of thetransfer chamber 125, 126 by any suitable distance so that the shoulderaxis SX is disposed at point 399 within the transfer chamber 125, 126when the base arm link 220 is rotated in a first direction. The point399 may be located, for example, where the transfer paths intoprocessing stations 140A, 140B, 140S1, 140S3 intersect or in other wordsin a center of the cluster formed by processing stations 140A, 140B,140S1, 140S3 with respect to chamber 126 in FIG. 3A or the clusterformed by processing stations 140A-140D with respect to chamber 125 inFIG. 1. When the base arm link is rotated in a second direction theshoulder axis SX may be located at point 398 within the transferchamber. The point 398 may be located, for example, where the transferpaths into processing stations 140S2, 140S4 and load locks 102A, 102Bintersect or in other words in a center of the cluster formed byprocessing stations 140S2, 140S4 and load locks 102A, 102B. In otheraspects the drive section 200 may be disposed at any suitable locationwithin the transfer chamber 125, 126.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate the base arm link 220 positioned so that theshoulder axis SX is located at point 398 so that the end effector of thetransfer arm 214 can access, for example, each of the processingstations 140S2, 140S4 and load locks 102A, 102B. It is noted that thetransfer arm 214 is illustrated in FIG. 4A, for exemplary purposes only,as a SCARA type arm having a dual blade (double ended) end effectorwhile in FIG. 4B the transfer arm 214 is illustrated as a SCARA type armhaving a single blade end effector. In other aspects the transfer arm214 may have any suitable configuration. It is also noted that in oneaspect the independent rotation of each of the upper arm link andforearm link may allow the transfer arm to extend on opposite sides ofthe shoulder axis SX so that end effector EE2 can access processingstation 140S2 and end effector EE1 can access processing station 140S4without rotation of the transfer arm 214 about the shoulder axis SX as aunit. It is also noted that the independent rotation of the transfer arm214 relative to the base arm 220 may allow for rotation of the transferarm 214 about shoulder axis SX as a unit so that end effector EE1 canaccess processing station 140S2 and end effector EE2 can accessprocessing station 140S4. As may be realized a fast swapping ofsubstrates may also be made by inserting one end effector into one ofthe processing stations, rotating the transfer arm about the shoulderaxis SX and then inserting the other end effector into the sameprocessing station. Likewise, referring to FIG. 4B the independentrotation of the transfer arm 214 relative to the base arm 220 may allowfor rotation of the transfer arm 214 about shoulder axis SX as a unit sothat end effector EE3 of the single blade SCARA arm can access bothprocessing stations 140S2, 140S4. As described herein, the drive sectionof the transfer robots includes three independent axes of rotationdefining three degrees of freedom. One degree of freedom of the drivesection moves the at least one base arm horizontally for transportingthe at least one transfer arm within the transfer chamber and twodegrees of freedom of the drive section drives the at least one transferarm to extend the at least one transfer arm, retract the at least onetransfer arm and swap the two end effectors.

Referring to FIGS. 5B and 5C the transfer arm 214 is shown as a dual armSCARA transfer arm. In this aspect, the dual arm SCARA transfer arm maybe independently driven with two drive motors (e.g. through shafts 270,271) using, for example, a mechanical switch or lost motion mechanism ina manner substantially similar to that described in U.S. Pat. No.7,946,800 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/117,415 filed on May8, 2008, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by referencein their entireties. For example, a first one of the drive shafts 270,271 may be connected to a housing of the transport arm for rotating thedual arm SCARA transfer arm about the shoulder axis SX as a unit while asecond one of the drive shafts 270, 271 is coupled to both arms throughthe mechanical switch so that rotation of the second drive shaft 270,271 in one direction causes a first one of the arms to extend while thesecond arm remains in a substantially retracted configuration androtation of the second drive shaft 270, 271 in the opposite directioncauses the second arm to extend while the first arm remains in asubstantially retracted configuration. As may be realized rotation ofthe dual arm SCARA transfer arm about the shoulder axis SX as a unit maybe provided through substantially simultaneous rotation of the first andsecond drive shafts 270, 271. It is noted that the end effectors may beslaved to upper arm in any suitable manner.

In another aspect, the dual SCARA transfer arm may be driven by twomotors where the upper arm of the first SCARA arm and the forearm of thesecond SCARA arm are drivingly coupled to shaft 270 (i.e. a common drivemotor) and the upper arm of the second SCARA arm and the forearm of thefirst SCARA arm are drivingly coupled to shaft 271 (i.e. a common drivemotor). Rotation of the shafts 270, 271 in the same direction may causerotation of the dual arm SCARA transfer arm about the shoulder axis SXas a unit and rotation of the shafts 270, 271 in opposite directions maycause extension or retraction of the arms in a manner substantiallysimilar to that described in U.S. patent application 13/293,717 filed onNov. 10, 2011 the disclosure of which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety. It is noted that the end effectors may be slavedto upper arm in any suitable manner.

In still another aspect, the dual arm SCARA transfer arm may be drivenusing three drive motors (e.g. where the drive section has four driveaxes independent of any Z-axis drive axis) through shafts 270, 271 andone additional shaft (not shown) in a manner substantially similar tothat described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,250 and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/417,837 filed on Mar. 12, 2012, the disclosures of which areincorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 6A the transfer arm 214 is illustrated as abi-symmetric frog leg transfer arm. The frog leg transfer arm mayinclude drive arm links 651, 652 and driven arm links 661-664. Thedriven arm links 661, 664 connect end effector EE4 to the drive armlinks 651, 652. The driven arm links 662, 663 connect end effector EE5to the drive arm links 651, 652. Drive arm link 651 may be coupled toshaft 270 (FIG. 2B) in any suitable manner and drive arm link 652 may becoupled to shaft 271 (FIG. 2B) in any suitable manner so that rotationof the drive shafts in opposite directions causes the extension andretraction of the end effector EE4 to/from e.g. processing station 140C,and extension and retraction of end effector EE5 to/from e.g. processingstation 140G in a manner substantially similar to that described in, forexample, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,899,658 and 5,720,590 the disclosures of whichare incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It is notedthat rotation of the shafts 270, 271 in the same direction may causerotation of the frog leg transfer arm about shoulder axis SX so thatfurther rotation of the drive shafts in opposite directions causes theextension and retraction of the end effector EE5 to/from e.g. processingstation 140C, and extension and retraction of end effector EE4 to/frome.g. processing station 140G in a manner substantially similar to thatdescribed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,899,658 and 5,720,590. Asmay be realized a fast swapping of substrates may also be made byinserting one end effector into one of the processing stations, rotatingthe transfer arm about the shoulder axis SX and then inserting the otherend effector into the same processing station.

Referring now to FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C different configurations of aprocessing apparatus including the elongated dual cluster transferchambers are illustrated in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment. It is again noted that in some aspects the processingapparatus may include multiple levels of processing stations and/or loadlocks (e.g. located one above the other) as described with respect toFIGS. 11A-11C so that the number of processing stations and/or loadlocks is increased substantially without increasing a footprint of theprocessing apparatus. FIG. 5A illustrates a single transfer chamberconfiguration substantially similar to that shown in FIG. 1, however inFIG. 5A transfer chamber 126 is illustrated having a differentprocessing station arrangement than transfer chamber 125 (e.g. twoprocessing stations are located at the end of the transfer chamberrather than the three processing stations of transfer chamber 125). FIG.5B illustrates a tandem transfer chamber configuration where twotransfer chambers 125 are coupled together by a single load lock 502 sothat the environments within the joined transfer chambers may beselectively sealed from each other. In other aspects the two transferchambers may be connected in any suitable manner so that theenvironments within the transfer chambers are in communication with eachother. FIG. 5C illustrates yet another configuration where two transferchambers 126 are coupled together by two load locks 502A, 502B so thatthe environments within the joined transfer chambers may be selectivelysealed from each other. In other aspects the two transfer chambers maybe connected in any suitable manner so that the environments within thetransfer chambers are in communication with each other. As may berealized, any suitable number of transfer chambers 125, 126 may becoupled to each other through any suitable number of load locks in anysuitable manner to form a combined transfer chamber having any suitablelength and configuration of process modules, load locks and EFEMs. Forexample, referring to FIG. 5D three transfer chambers 126 are coupledtogether to form a combined linearly elongated transfer chamber suchthat each end of the combined linearly elongated transfer chamber has arespective mini-environment (EFEM) 106A, 106B, however it should berealized that transfer chambers 125 may be coupled together or coupledtogether in combination with transfer chambers 126 in a mannersubstantially similar to that shown in FIGS. 5B and 5C to form acombined linearly elongated transfer chamber having ends with respectivemini-environments 106A, 106B. In this aspect, substrates may beintroduced into the processing apparatus at one end of the processingapparatus through one of mini-environments 106A, 106B and removed fromthe processing apparatus at the other end through the other one ofmini-environments 106A, 106B. As may be realized a mini-environmentsubstantially similar to mini-environments 106A, 106B may replace one ofthe processing stations 140 so that substrates may be removed from orintroduced to the processing apparatus between the ends of the combinedlinearly elongated transfer chamber. Similarly a processing apparatushaving a single linearly elongated transfer chamber such as shown inFIGS. 1 and 5A may have a mini-environment disposed at each end of thechamber 125, 126 or between the ends of the chamber 125, 126 in a mannersubstantially similar to that described with respect to FIG. 5D.

Referring now to FIG. 6, in this aspect the tool 600 is shown as acluster type tool having a linearly elongated transfer chamber 625(illustrated as an elongated triple cluster transfer chamber, e.g. onecluster is formed by processing stations 140C-140G, one cluster isformed by processing stations 140B and 140H and one cluster is formed byprocessing stations 140A, 1401 and load locks 102A, 102B). The tool 600may be substantially similar to tool station 100 described above suchthat like features have like reference numbers. It is again noted thatin some aspects the tool 600 (as well as the portions of the tool shownin FIGS. 8A-9C) may include multiple levels of processing stationsand/or load locks (e.g. located one above the other) as described withrespect to FIGS. 11A-11C so that the number of processing stationsand/or load locks is increased substantially without increasing afootprint of the processing apparatus.

The vacuum back end 103 generally includes a transfer chamber 625 one ormore processing station(s) 140A-1401, generally referred to asprocessing station(s) 140, and a transfer robot 630. The transfer robot630 will be described below and may be located within the transferchamber 625 to transport substrates between the load lock(s) 102 and thevarious processing stations 140. It is noted that in one aspect thetransfer robot 113 of the mini-environment 106 may be substantiallysimilar to transfer robot 630, while in other aspects the transfer robot113 may be any suitable transfer robot.

Referring now to FIGS. 7A and 7B the transfer robot 630 generallyincludes a drive section 700 having a housing 701, a mounting flange 702configured for mounting the transfer robot 630 in one of the atmosphericfront end 101 or vacuum back end 103, and a transfer arm section 710.The transfer arm section 710 may include a base arm or articulated boom720 and a transfer arm 214 rotatably mounted to the base arm 720 at ashoulder axis SX. The base arm 720 may include an upper arm link 721 anda forearm link 722 rotatably coupled to the upper arm link 721. In oneaspect the base arm 720 may include an aligner 230 (FIG. 2C) mounted toone of the upper arm link 721 or forearm link 721 in a mannersubstantially similar to that described above. It is noted that thetransfer arm 214 may be substantially similar to that described aboveand be rotatably coupled to the forearm link 722 of the base arm 720. Itis again noted that the transfer arm will be referred to generallyherein as transfer arm 214 and illustrated in the various figures ashaving different transfer arm configurations. For example, in FIG. 7Athe transfer arm 214 is illustrated as a SCARA type arm having an upperarm link 213, a forearm link 212 rotatably coupled to the upper arm 213and an end effector 211 rotatably coupled to the forearm link 212, butas noted above, the transfer arm 214 may be any suitable type oftransfer arm having two degrees of freedom and one or more endeffectors.

The drive section 700 may be substantially similar to drive section 200described above. In one aspect the drive section 700 may also include aZ-axis drive 203 substantially similar to that described above forlinearly moving the transfer arm section 710 in a directionsubstantially perpendicular to an axis of extension and retraction ofthe transfer arm section 710. In other aspects the drive section 700 maynot have a Z-axis drive. It is noted that the drive section 700 may bedisposed within the transfer chamber at any suitable location forallowing the transfer arm 214 access to each of the processing stationsand load locks coupled to the transfer chamber. For example, in FIG. 6the drive section 700 is shown substantially aligned with a substratetransport path into processing stations 140B, 140H but in other aspectsthe drive section may be disposed at any suitable location.

The motors 201MB, 201MU, 201MF (FIG. 2D) of the drive section 700 may beconfigured to drive a coaxial drive shaft arrangement having an innerdrive shaft 262, a middle drive shaft 261 and an outer drive shaft 260.The outer drive shaft 260 may be coupled to the upper arm link 721 ofthe base arm 720 about a drive axis of rotation X so that as the outerdrive shaft 260 rotates the upper arm link 721 rotates with it. Theforearm link 722 of the base arm 720 may be slaved to, for example, ahousing 701 of the drive section 700 so that a shoulder axis SX of theforearm link 722 is constrained to travel along a substantially linearpath as the base arm 720 is extended and retracted (e.g. a single drivemotor causes the extension and retraction of the base arm 720 for movingthe transfer arm along the length of the transfer chamber). For example,a drive axis pulley 780 may be mounted substantially concentrically withthe drive axis of rotation X and grounded to, for example, the housing701 of the drive section 700 (or any other suitable portion of thetransfer apparatus 630) in any suitable manner so that the drive axispulley 780 is rotationally stationary relative to the upper arm link721. In other aspects the drive axis pulley 780 may be rotationallyfixed in any suitable manner. A slaved pulley 783 may be rotatablymounted at an elbow axis EX of the base arm 720 in any suitable mannersuch as by any suitable bearings EXB. The slaved pulley 783 may becoupled to the forearm link 722 by, for example, shaft 763 so that asthe slaved pulley 783 rotates the forearm link 722 rotates with it. Thepulleys 780, 783 may be coupled to each other in any suitable mannersuch as by any suitable transmission 791 including, for example, bands,belts, etc. In one aspect the pulleys 780, 783 may be coupled to eachother with at least two belts or cables terminated on either ends of thepulleys and then tensioned against each other to substantially eliminateslack and backlash. In other aspects any suitable transmission membermay be used to couple the pulleys 780, 783. A two to one (2:1) pulleyratio may be used between pulleys 780, 783 from the drive axis ofrotation X to the elbow axis of rotation EX to drive the linear motionof the shoulder axis SX of the forearm link 722. In other aspects anysuitable pulley ratio may be used. As may be realized the slaved natureof the forearm link 722 allows the extension and retraction of the basearm with a single drive motor through shaft 260 while the shoulder axisSX is constrained to travel along a substantially linear path P withinthe transfer chamber 625.

A coaxial spindle (drive shaft arrangement) having outer shaft 271 andinner shaft 270 may be located at the shoulder axis SX of the forearmlink 722 in a manner substantially similar to that described above withrespect to FIG. 2B. The outer shaft 271 may be driven by, for example,the middle drive shaft 261 in any suitable manner. For example, a driveaxis pulley 781 may be coupled to the middle drive shaft 261 so that asthe drive shaft 261 rotates the drive axis pulley 781 rotates with it.An idler pulley 784 may be disposed within the upper arm link 721 forrotation about elbow axis EX. The idler pulley 784 may be coupled toshaft 765 so that as the idler pulley 784 rotates the shaft 765 rotateswith it. The shaft 765 and pulley 784 may be supported in any suitablemanner such as with any suitable bearings EXB. The idler pulley 784 maybe coupled to pulley 781 in any suitable manner such as through anysuitable transmission 790 substantially similar to those describedabove. A second idler pulley 787 may also be coupled to the shaft 765within the forearm link 722 so that the pulleys 784 and 787 rotate inunison. A shoulder pulley 789 may be coupled to the shaft 271 so thatthe shaft 271 and shoulder pulley 789 rotate in unison. The second idlerpulley 787 may be coupled to the shoulder pulley 789 in any suitablemanner, such as through any suitable transmission 794 substantiallysimilar to those described above.

The inner shaft 270 of the coaxial spindle may be driven by, forexample, the inner drive shaft 262 in any suitable manner. For example,a drive axis pulley 782 may be coupled to the inner drive shaft 262 sothat as the drive shaft 262 rotates the drive axis pulley 782 rotateswith it. An idler pulley 785 may be disposed within the upper arm link721 for rotation about elbow axis EX. The idler pulley 785 may becoupled to shaft 764 so that as the idler pulley 785 rotates the shaft764 rotates with it. The shaft 764 and pulley 785 may be supported inany suitable manner such as with any suitable bearings EXB. The idlerpulley 785 may be coupled to pulley 782 in any suitable manner such asthrough any suitable transmission 792 substantially similar to thosedescribed above. A second idler pulley 786 may also be coupled to theshaft 764 within the forearm link 722 so that the pulleys 785 and 786rotate in unison. A shoulder pulley 788 may be coupled to the innershaft 270 so that the shaft 270 and shoulder pulley 788 rotate inunison. The second idler pulley 786 may be coupled to the shoulderpulley 788 in any suitable manner, such as through any suitabletransmission 793 substantially similar to those described above. It isnoted that the pulleys 781, 784, 782, 785, 786, 788, 787, 789 may haverespective one to one (1:1) drive ratios but in other aspects anysuitable drive ratios may be used. In other aspects, the drive motors201MU and 201MF may be distributed along the transfer arm 214 in amanner substantially similar to that described above with respect toFIG. 2E. In still other aspects the drive motors 201MU and 201MF may bedisposed in a motor module in a manner substantially similar to thatdescribed above with respect to FIGS. 2H-2J. As may also be realized, atransfer arm 214 may be located on the top and/or bottom of the base arm720 in a manner substantially similar to that described above withrespect to FIGS. 2D and 2G.

The outer drive shaft 271 and inner drive shaft 270 may be coupled tothe transfer arm 214 in any suitable manner, such as those describedabove, for causing the transfer arm to extend and retract or rotate as aunit about the shoulder axis SX.

Referring to FIGS. 7C-7E in another aspect of the disclosed embodimentthe motor(s) for driving, for example, the base arm 720 may be locatedat any one or more suitable positions of the base arm 720. For example,in one aspect a linear or Z-axis drive 203 may be located at orproximate to the shoulder axis X of the base arm 720 for driving a liftshaft 203LS to provide the base arm with linear Z-axis movement in thedirection of arrow 799. A first motor 3800M1 may be provided on, forexample, the lift shaft 203LS in any suitable manner for drivingrotation of the upper arm link 721. The motor 3800M1 may be located atleast partly within the upper arm link 721 while in other aspects themotor 3800M1 may be mounted on an outside surface of the upper arm link.In one aspect the motor 3800M1 may drive the upper arm link directlywhile in other aspects the motor 3800M1 may drive a pulley 3800P1. Thepulley 3800P1 may be coupled to a pulley 3800P2 in any suitable mannersuch as with one or more bands, belts, chains, etc. The pulley 3800P2may be fixed to the upper arm link 721 so that as the motor 3800M1rotates pulley 3800P1 the upper arm link is caused to rotate about theshoulder axis X of the base arm 720. A second motor 3800M2 may belocated at the elbow axis EX of the base arm 720. The motor 3800M2 maybe disposed at least partly within one or more of the upper arm link 721and the forearm link 722. In one aspect the motor 3800M2 may be coupledto the forearm link 722 in any suitable manner. The motors 3800M1,3800M2 may be driven by any suitable controller and in any suitablemanner so that as the upper arm link 721 and forearm link 722 rotate theshoulder axis SX of the transfer arm 214 travels along a substantiallystraight line path in a manner substantially similar to that describedbelow. In this aspect the forearm link 722 may include a forearm basesection 722B and a interchangeable forearm spacer section 722S. One endof the forearm spacer section 722S may be fixed or otherwise coupled tothe forearm base section 722B while the other end of the forearm spacersection 722S may be fixed or otherwise coupled to the motor module 201M.As may be realized any suitable number of interchangeable forearm spacersections 722S1, 722S2 may be provided where each forearm spacer sectionshas a length that is different from the other forearm spacer sectionsallowing for the scaling of forearm link 722 length. As may also berealized, a spacer link may also be provided in the upper arm link 721in a manner substantially similar to that described above so that thelength of the upper arm link 721 may also be scaled to any suitablelength.

Referring to FIGS. 8A-8C another transfer chamber 626, substantiallysimilar to transfer chamber 625 is illustrated. However, the transferchamber 626 includes, for example, eight processing stations 140A-140Hwhere the one of the clusters includes processing stations 140C, 140D,140E, 140F, another of the chambers includes processing stations 140Band 140G while the remaining cluster includes processing stations 140A,140H and load locks 102A, 102B. The base arm 720 in FIGS. 8A-8B is shownin, for example, three positions where the three positions align theshoulder axis SX transfer arm 214 in a central portion of a respectivecluster so that the transfer arm 214 can pick and place substrates toeach processing station/load lock of the respective cluster in a mannersubstantially similar to that described above. FIGS. 9A-9C illustrate atransfer arm 214 disposed on the base arm 720 in a position within thetransfer chamber 626 for accessing processing stations 140A, 140H andload locks 102A, 102B. It is also noted that the transfer arm isillustrated, for exemplary purposes only, as a SCARA arm having a dualbladed end effector (FIG. 9A), as a bi-symmetric frog leg transfer arm(FIG. 9B) and as a dual arm SCARA arm (FIG. 9C) but is should beunderstood, as described above, that any suitable transfer arm, such asa two degree of freedom transfer arm, may be mounted to the base arm 720in any suitable manner.

FIGS. 10A, 10B and 10C illustrate different configurations of aprocessing apparatus including the elongated triple cluster transferchambers in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment. FIG.10A illustrates a single transfer chamber configuration substantiallysimilar to that shown in FIG. 6, however in FIG. 10A transfer chamber626 is illustrated. FIG. 10B illustrates a tandem transfer chamberconfiguration where two transfer chambers 625 are coupled together by asingle load lock 1002. FIG. 10C illustrates yet another configurationwhere two transfer chambers 625, 626 are coupled together by two loadlocks 1002A, 1002B. As may be realized, any suitable number of transferchambers 625, 626 may be coupled to each other in any suitable manner toform a combined transfer chamber having any suitable length andconfiguration of process modules, load locks and EFEM. For example,referring to FIG. 10D three transfer chambers 626 are coupled togetherto form a combined linearly elongated transfer chamber such that eachend of the combined linearly elongated transfer chamber has a respectivemini-environment 106A, 106B, however it should be realized that transferchambers 625 may be coupled to together or in combination with transferchambers 626 in a manner substantially similar to that shown in FIGS.10B and 10C to form a combined linearly elongated transfer chamberhaving ends with respective mini-environments 106A, 106B. In thisaspect, substrates may be introduced into the processing apparatus atone end of the processing apparatus through one of mini-environment106A, 106B and removed from the processing apparatus at the other endthrough the other one of mini-environment 106A, 106B. As may be realizeda mini-environment substantially similar to mini-environments 106A, 106Bmay replace one of the processing stations 140 so that substrates may beremoved from or introduced to the processing apparatus between the endsof the combined linearly elongated transfer chamber. Similarly aprocessing apparatus having a single linearly elongated transfer chambersuch as shown in FIGS. 6 and 10A may have a mini-environment disposed ateach end of the chamber 625, 626 or between the ends of the chamber 625,626 in a manner substantially similar to that described with respect toFIG. 10D.

Referring now to FIG. 37, in one aspect of the disclosed embodiment thebase arm may include more than two arm links 721, 722. For example, thebase arm 720′ may be substantially similar to that described above withrespect to FIG. 7A and include drive section 700, an upper arm link 721rotatably coupled to the drive section 700′ and forearm link 722rotatably coupled the upper arm link 721. In this aspect the base armfurther includes a wrist link 723 rotatably coupled to the forearm link722. The motor module 201M, to which the transfer arm 214 is mounted,may be coupled to an end of the wrist link 723. As noted above withrespect to FIGS. 7C-7E the shoulder axis X of the base arm 720′ may bemounted to a Z-drive lift shaft 203LS. The lift shaft 203LS may bedrivingly coupled to a Z-axis drive 203 disposed in the drive section700′. In a manner substantially similar to that described above withrespect to FIGS. 7C-7E, motor 3800M1 may be disposed at the shoulderaxis X of the base arm 720′ for rotating the upper arm link 721 in amanner substantially similar to that described above. The motor 3800M2may be disposed at the elbow axis EX of the base arm 720′ where themotor may be disposed at least partly within one or more of the upperarm link 721 and the forearm link 722. The motor 3800M2 may be drivinglycoupled to a drive pulley, substantially similar to pulley 3800P1, alsolocated at the elbow axis (in a manner substantially similar to motor3800M1 in FIGS. 7C-7E). A driven pulley, substantially similar to pulley3800P2, may be located at the wrist axis WX of the base arm 720′ andcoupled to the drive pulley in any suitable manner, such as thosedescribed above. A third motor 3800M3, which may be substantiallysimilar to motor 3800M2 may be located at the wrist axis WX of the basearm 720′ such that the motor 3800M2 is disposed at least partly withinone or more of the forearm link 722 and the wrist link 723. The motor3800M3 may be coupled to the wrist link 723 in any suitable manner, suchas that described above with respect to motor 3800M2 and forearm link722 (see FIGS. 7C-7E) for rotating the wrist link 723 about the wristaxis WX. As may be realized the motors 3800M1, 3800M2, 3800M3 may becontrolled in any suitable manner by any suitable controller such thatthe transfer arm 214 is transferred along a substantially straight linepath by the base arm 720′ in a manner substantially similar to thatdescribed above with respect to base arm 720.

Referring to FIGS. 11, 12 and 13, in accordance with an aspect of thedisclosed embodiment a semiconductor tool station 1100 is shown. In thisaspect the tool station 1100 includes a front end 101 including, forexample, load port modules 105 and a mini-environment 106 substantiallysimilar to those described above. The tool station also includes avacuum back end 1103 connected to the front end 101 through one or moreload locks 102A, 102B. The back end 1103 may be substantially similar toback end 103 described above, but in this aspect the back end 1103includes a substantially rectangular transfer chamber 1125. One side ofthe transfer chamber 1125 is connected to the front end 101 through theload locks 102A, 102B and the other sides of the transfer chamber 1125are connected to any suitable number of processing stations 1140A-1140F.In this aspect there are two processing stations connected to respectivesides of the transfer chamber 1125 but in other aspects any suitablenumber of processing stations may be connected to each of the respectivesides. In still other aspects load locks or buffer stations may bedisposed in place of one or more of the processing stations to connecttwo or more substantially rectangular transfer chambers 1125 together ina manner substantially similar to that described above with respect to,for example, FIGS. 5B-5D and 10B-10D. It is noted that the processingstations 1140A-1140F may be substantially similar to the processingstations described above.

Referring to FIGS. 11A-11C, as may be realized, the transfer chamber1125 may be configured so that the processing stations 1140 and loadlocks 102 may be connected to the transfer chamber 1125 in a stackedconfiguration (e.g. located one above the other) or in a two dimensionalarray (e.g. one above the other and side by side). For example,referring to FIG. 11A in one aspect the load locks 102 may be locatedone above the other (and side by side to form an array of load locks)and the processing stations 1140 may be located one above the other (andside by side to form an array of processing stations). Referring to FIG.11B, in another aspect, the load locks 102 may be located one above theother (and side by side to form an array of load locks) and theprocessing stations 1140 may be located in a single horizontal row.Referring to FIG. 11C, in yet another aspect, the load locks 102 may belocated in a single horizontal row and the processing stations 1140 maybe located one above the other (and side by side to form an array ofprocessing stations). In still other aspects the load locks 102 andprocessing stations 1140 may be connected to the transfer chamber 1125in any suitable manner. It is noted that the load locks and/orprocessing stations of one or more of FIGS. 1, 3A-6, and 8A-10D may alsobe disposed in any combination of single rows and stacks in a mannersubstantially similar to that described above with respect to FIGS.11A-11C.

The transfer robot 1130 may be substantially similar to transfer robot130 or 630 described above and disposed within the transfer chamber 1125so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation X11. For exemplarypurposes, the transfer robot 1130 is shown as being substantiallysimilar to transfer robot 130. While the axis of rotation X11 is shownas being substantially centrally located within the transfer chamber1125, it is noted that in other aspects the axis of rotation may bedisposed at any suitable location within the transfer chamber 1125. Itis noted that the transfer arm 1130R in FIG. 11 is illustrated as asingle SCARA arm, in FIG. 12 the transfer arm 1130R1 is illustrated as adual SCARA arm and in FIG. 13 the transfer arms 1130R1, 1130R1 arerespectively illustrated as a single SCARA arm and a double SCARA all ofwhich are substantially similar to the respective arm types describedabove with respect to transfer arm 214, 214′. However, in other aspectsany suitable combination of transfer arm types (as described above,e.g., each robot includes a single SCARA, each robot includes a doubleSCARA, one robot includes a single SCARA and the other includes a doubleSCARA, each arm includes a frog leg arm, etc.) may be disposed on thebase arm 220 of the respective transfer robots 1130A, 1130B. It is alsonoted that the independent rotation of the transfer arm 214 relative tothe base arm 220 allows an axis of extension and retraction of arespective transfer arm to be aligned with a path extending into and outof each of the processing stations 1140A-1140F and each of the loadlocks 102 so that any of the transfer arms can transfer substrates toand from any of the processing stations and load locks.

Referring to FIGS. 2G, 2F and 13 more than one transfer robot may belocated within any of the transfer chambers described herein. Forexample, in one aspect two transfer robots 1130A, 1130B are locatedwithin transfer chamber 1125 but in other aspects any suitable number oftransfer robots may be located within the transfer chamber 1125. In oneaspect, one transfer robot 1130A may be mounted to a top TCT (FIG. 2G)of the transfer chamber 1125 while the other transfer robot 1130B ismounted to a bottom TCB (FIG. 2G) of the transfer chamber 1125. Whilethe axis X11 of each of the transfer robots 1130A, 1130B is illustratedas being substantially in line with each other in other aspects the axesX11 of each of the transfer robots may be horizontally spaced from oneanother so that the axes X11 are located on substantially opposite endsof the transfer chamber or have any suitable spatial relationshiprelative to each other. In another aspect, each of the transfer arms1130A, 1130B may be coaxially arranged and connected to a common drivesection 200 as shown in FIG. 2F. In this aspect the drive section wouldinclude a suitable coaxial drive shaft arrangement (and thecorresponding motors) for driving at least the base arms 220, 220′ wherethe motors for the transfer arms 214, 214′ are located as describedabove for driving the transfer arm 214, 214′.

Referring now to FIG. 13A, a portion of a processing apparatus is shown.As can be seen in the figure, the transfer chamber 1125 has closableports 1196A-1196H for coupling the process modules, load locks or anyother suitable substrate processing equipment to the transfer chamber1125. In this aspect the transfer apparatus 1199 within the transferchamber 1125 may be a hub type transfer apparatus. For example, arotating hub 1199H may be disposed at any suitable location within thetransfer chamber 1125. The hub 199H may be rotatably driven in anysuitable manner by any suitable drive. In this aspect the hub 1199H isshown as having four hub couplings 1199C but in other aspects the hubmay have any suitable number of hub couplings. Hub spacer links 1198(which may be substantially similar to spacer link 722S described above)may be coupled a respective one of the hub couplings 1199C. One end ofthe hub spacer link 1198 is coupled to the hub coupling 1199C and theother end of the hub spacer link 1198 may be coupled to a motor module201M to which any suitable transfer arm 214A, 214B (which may besubstantially similar to the transfer arms described herein) is mounted.The hub 1199H may be rotatably indexed in the direction of arrow 1197 tomove the transfer arms 214A, 214B from one pair of ports to another pairof ports where, in this aspect, the pairs of ports are disposed at thecorners of the transfer chamber 1125. A transfer arm 214A, 214B locatedat a desired port may be extended and retracted by the motor module 201Mfor transferring substrates to and from the transfer chamber 1125. Inother aspects the transfer arms 214A, 214B may be positioned to access asingle port. In one aspect a substrate holding station 1199S may bedisposed on the hub 1199H. The substrate holding station 1199S may be abuffer, an aligner or any other suitable wafer holding station. Thesubstrate holding station may allow for wafer transfer between thetransfer arms 214A, 214B.

Referring also to FIG. 17 a semiconductor tool station 1100′substantially similar to a semiconductor tool station 1100 is shown.However, in this aspect there are four load locks 1702A-1702D coupled tothe transfer chamber 1125. In other aspects any suitable number of loadlocks may be coupled to the transfer chamber 1125. As can be seen inFIG. 17, each of the load locks 1702A-1702D may include a transfer robotand may be coupled substantially directly to a respective substratecassette 110 disposed on a respective load port 105. It is noted thatthe substrate cassette 110 may be configured so that an interior of thesubstrate cassette 110 is maintained at a vacuum when coupled to theload lock 1702A-1702D or the load lock may be configured to cycles itsinternal environment each time a substrate is transferred between thecassette 110 and the transfer chamber 1125.

Referring now to FIG. 14 a semiconductor tool station 1400 is shown. Thetool station 1400 may be substantially similar to tool station 1100described above, however in this aspect the transfer chamber is formedby individual transfer chambers 1125A-1125D that are rectilineararranged for transporting substrates between the load locks 102A, 102Band the processing stations 1140A-1140F. In this aspect there are fourtransfer chambers 1125A-1125D communicably coupled to each other throughload locks and/or buffer stations 1401-1404 to form a two-by-two arrayor grid of transfer chambers. In other aspects any suitable number oftransfer chambers may be provided and coupled to each other tocollectively form the rectilinear transfer chamber of any suitable size(e.g. an N×M grid of transfer chambers where N and M are whole numbers).As may be realized, the tool station 1400 (as well as the other toolstations described herein) may include multiple levels of substrateholding stations, as described with respect to FIGS. 11A-11C, so thatthe grid is a three dimensional grid (e.g. an N×M grid of transferchambers having Y vertically spaced levels of substrate holdingstations). Each transfer chamber may be modular in a mannersubstantially similar to that described in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/442,511 filed May 26, 2006 and Ser. No. 11/679,829 filed Feb. 27,2007 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,763, the disclosure of which areincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It is noted thatwhere load locks communicably couple the transfer chambers 1125A-1125Dthe internal environment of each transfer chamber can be selectivelysealed from the internal environments of the other transfer chambers. Asmay be realized, each transfer chamber 1125A-1125D may include atransfer arm 1430 substantially similar to arm 214 described above. Thetransfer arms may be configured to transfer substrates between thetransfer chambers through the load locks and/or buffer stations1401-1404 or directly between the robots (e.g. robot to robot transfer).In other aspects the transfer chambers 1125A-1125D may have any suitabletransfer arm for transporting substrates through the respective transferchambers to the processing stations and/or load locks coupled thereto.

Referring to FIG. 14A a semiconductor tool station 1400″ substantiallysimilar to semiconductor tool station 1400 is shown. In this aspect twoof the transfer chambers 1125A, 1125D are substituted with transferchamber 1125E. Transfer chamber 1125E includes two transfer robots 1450,1451 in a single chamber. The transfer robots 1450, 1451 may besubstantially similar to those described above. In one aspect thetransfer arm on one or more of the transfer robots 1450, 1451 (or anyother one(s) of the transfer arm(s) described herein) may have unequallength arm links (e.g. the upper arm is shorter than the forearm or viceversa) in a manner substantially similar to that described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/179,762 filed on Jul. 11, 2005, thedisclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.Here the transfer chamber 1125E includes two ends 1125E1, 1125E2 andsides extending between the ends 1125E1, 1125E2. The transfer chamber1125E is communicably coupled to three load locks 102A-102C on one sideand is communicably coupled to the two transfer chambers 1125B, 1125C onthe other side. In other aspects, there may be more or less than threeload locks communicably coupled to the side of the transfer chamber andmore or less than two transfer chambers communicably coupled to theother side of the transfer chamber. The transfer chambers 1125B, 1125Cmay be coupled to the transfer chamber 1125E in any suitable manner suchas through load locks 1401, 1403 or through any suitable buffer module.As may be realized the transfer robots 1450, 1451, 1430 may beconfigured to transfer substrates directly between robots (e.g. a robotto robot handoff) or through the use of any suitable substrate holdingstation such as a loadlock or buffer station. One or more processingstations 1140A, 1140F may be located on each of the ends 1125E1, 1125E2of the transfer chamber 1125E. The two robots 1450, 1451 may be disposedin the transfer chamber 1125E so that their respective drive axes X arehorizontally spaced from one another so that one arm 1451 serves a firstportion of the transfer chamber (e.g. load locks 102A, 102C, 1403 (e.g.transfer chamber 1125B) and processing station 1140F) while the otherarm 1450 serves a second portion of the transfer chamber (e.g. loadlocks 102C, 102B, 1401 (e.g. transfer chamber 1125C) and processingstation 1140A). As may be realized the first and second portion of thetransfer chamber 1125E may overlap but in other aspects the first andsecond portions may not overlap. In still other aspects the transferchamber 1125E may include a single transfer robot, similar to transferrobot 630 that is configured so that the transfer arm traverses thelength of the transfer chamber 1125E for accessing the substrate holdingstations and/or other transfer chambers communicably coupled to thetransfer chamber 1125E.

Referring also to FIG. 19 a semiconductor tool station 1400′substantially similar to semiconductor tool station 1400 is shown.However, in this aspect there are two load locks 1702A, 1702Bcommunicably coupling the rectilinear transfer chamber to substratecassettes 110 located at a respective load port 105 in a mannersubstantially similar to that described above with respect to FIG. 17.As can be seen in FIG. 19, each of the load locks 1702A, 1702B mayinclude a transfer robot, also in a manner substantially similar to thatdescribed above with respect to FIG. 17. It is noted that additionalload locks may be substituted for processing stations, and vice versa,so that substrates can be inserted and/or removed from the tool station1400′ on any side or sides of the tool station 1400′. For example,referring to FIG. 19A, the processing stations 1140 and load locks1702A, 1702B are arranged so that the load locks 1702A, 1702B aredisposed on opposite sides of the tool station 1140″. In other aspectsthe load locks and processing stations may have any suitablearrangement.

Referring now to FIG. 15 a semiconductor tool station 1500 isillustrated in accordance with an aspect of the disclosed embodiment.The tool station 1500 may be substantially similar to tool station 1100however one side S1 of the transfer chamber 1525 includes angledsurfaces configured so that substrate transfer paths P1, P2 into and outof the respective processing stations the processing stations 1140C,1140D are angled relative to each other by any suitable angle α. As maybe realized more than one side S1-S3 may include angled surfacessubstantially similar to those on side S1 to form a multifacetedtransfer chamber. One or more transfer robots 1530 substantially similarto those described above may be disposed within the transfer chamber1525 for transporting substrates through the transfer chamber andbetween the processing stations and load locks. As noted above, theability of the transfer arm(s) 214 of the one or more robots 1530 torotate independently as a unit relative to base arm 220 allows an axisof extension and retraction of the transfer arm to be aligned with thetransfer path into and out of any one of the processing stations andload locks regardless of the shape of each wall of the transfer chamber.FIG. 18 illustrates a semiconductor tool station 1500′ substantiallysimilar to tool station 1500. However, in this aspect shown in FIG. 18the tool station 1500′ includes three load locks 1702A-1702C that aresubstantially similar to those described above with respect to FIGS. 17and 19. In other aspects the tool station 1500′ may include any suitablenumber of load locks.

FIG. 16 illustrates a tool station 1600 in accordance with an aspect ofthe disclosed embodiment. In this aspect the tool station may besubstantially similar to tool station 1100 however, the transfer chamber1625 may have a pentagonal shape so that an increased number ofprocessing stations 1640A-1640H may be communicably coupled to thetransfer chamber 1625. As with the tool stations described above, insome aspects tool station 1600 may include multiple levels of processingstations and/or load locks (e.g. located one above the other) asdescribed with respect to FIGS. 11A-11C so that the number of processingstations and/or load locks is further increased substantially withoutincreasing a footprint of the tool station. One or more transfer robots1630 substantially similar to those described above may be disposedwithin the transfer chamber 1625 for transporting substrates through thetransfer chamber and between the processing stations and load locks.Again, as noted above, the ability of the transfer arm(s) 214 of the oneor more robots 1630 to rotate independently as a unit relative to basearm 220 allows an axis of extension and retraction of the transfer armto be aligned with the transfer path into and out of any one of theprocessing stations and load locks regardless of the shape of thetransfer chamber.

It should be understood that while the aspects of the disclosedembodiment are illustrated with one or multiple cluster transferchambers, in other aspects the transfer chambers may have any suitablenumbers of processing station/load lock clusters. Further, while thebase arm of the aspects of the disclosed embodiment are illustrated withone base link (FIGS. 2A and 17) and two base links (FIG. 7A), in otheraspects the base arm may have any suitable number of links for allowinga shoulder axis SX of the base arm (about which the transfer arm 214 ismounted) to extend any suitable distance for transporting the transferarm 214 along a length of the linearly elongated transfer chambers 125,126, 625, 626 and/or for transporting the transfer arm(s) 1130R, 1130R1,1130R2, 1130R3 around an axis of rotation in a substantially rectangulartransfer chamber 1125, 1525 and/or a substantially pentagonal transferchamber 1625 (or other suitable multi-sided transfer chamber).

Referring now to FIG. 20A a schematic illustration of a processingapparatus 2000 is shown in accordance with aspects of the disclosedembodiment. Also referring to FIGS. 20E, 34A and 34B, generally theprocessing apparatus 2000 includes one or more processing toolassemblies/modules 2020 connected to one or more other processing toolmodules 2020A, 2020B, 2020C and/or other suitable substrate processingequipment, such as an EFEM or batch loader interface 2060 by one or morevacuum tunnels 2010, 2010A, 2010B, 2050. The processing tool modules maybe existing or otherwise “off the shelf” processing/cluster toolsprovided by a variety of original equipment manufacturers. As can beseen in FIG. 20E the processing tool modules 2020, 2020A, 2020B may havea cluster configuration or the processing tool modules 2020C may have alinear configuration or any suitable combination thereof. Each of theprocessing/cluster tools may have different predetermined processingcharacteristics for processing the substrates. The aspects of thedisclosed embodiments allow these existing processing tool modules to becommunicably connected to each other in, for example, an opposingconfiguration by, for example an automation module 2030, wheresubstrates are transferred into the opposing processing tool modulesthrough the automation module with a single touching of the substrate aswill be described below. As will also be described below the processingtools may be connected to each other in a substantially lineararrangement such as by transport tunnels 2010A, 2010B, 2050.

It should be understood that while the “tunnels” 2010A, 2010B, 2050 aredescribed herein as vacuum tunnels having a vacuum atmosphere, in otheraspects the “tunnels” may have any suitable atmosphere therein such asfor example, an inert gas atmosphere, a non-vacuum atmosphere, a vacuumatmosphere or any combination thereof. It should also be understood thatin other aspects one or more of the modules (e.g. vacuum module,automation module, orientation module, interface module, etc., whichwill be described below) forming the “tunnel” may be sealable from othermodules in the tunnel in any suitable manner (e.g. such as with a gatevalve that allows transfer carts to pass between modules) such that oneor more of the modules may have a different atmosphere (such as thosenoted above) than other modules in the tunnel.

The processing tool modules 2020 may include one or more processingchambers 2021-2023, a transfer chamber 2024 and load locks 2025, 2026.In one aspect the processing tool modules 2020 may be substantiallysimilar to those described above with respect to FIGS. 3A-6 and 8A-19Awhile in other aspects the processing tool modules may have any suitableconfiguration and/or components. Referring also to FIG. 20B, in oneaspect the processing tool modules 2020 and other modules/components ofthe processing apparatus, such as the automation modules 2030, may beconfigured such that the processing chambers 2022 and/or load locks2025, 2026 may be coupled to ports of the modules in a stackedconfiguration (i.e. the processing chambers 2022 and/or load locks 2025,2026 are disposed in one or more vertically spaced or stacked planesPL). In other aspects the processing chambers may not be stacked butrather arranged in a common plane. Referring to FIG. 20C, the automationmodules 2030 and EFEMs 2060 may also be configured with stacked transferplanes PL so that the vacuum tunnels 2010 may be arranged in thedifferent planes PL. It is also noted that substrate indexers/elevators20301N may be disposed in the tunnel to elevate/lower substratesinto/out of the tunnel. As may be realized, where the tunnels arestacked the indexers/elevators 20301N may connect the stacked tunnels toallow substrate transfer between the stacked tunnels.

An automation module 2030 configured to transfer one or more wafers atsubstantially the same time may connect the processing tool modules 2020to the vacuum tunnels 2010A, 2010B, 2050 in any suitable manner. Theautomation module may include a housing forming a chamber capable ofholding a sealed environment therein and having substrate port openingsthrough which substrates are transported in and out of the chamber. Thehousing of the automation module 2030 may include a first end 2030E1 anda second end 2030E2 and two sides 2030S1, 2030S2 extending between theends. Each of the sides may have at least two substrate transportopenings or connection ports 2030P1, 2030P2, 2030P4, 2030P5 (FIGS. 24A,24B) for coupling to, for example, the load locks of the processing toolmodules 2020, a vacuum tunnel an EFEM, a load port module (e.g. the loadport module may be connected substantially directly to the automationmodule as will be described below) and/or any other suitable automationequipment (e.g. equipment for processing or otherwise handlingsubstrates). The sides 2030S1, 2030S2 may define a mating interface formating with a side of a process tool assembly 2020, 2020A, 2020B, 2020C.At least one side 2030S1, 2030S2 of the housing may have more than oneof the connection ports 2030P1, 2030P2, 2030P4, 2030P5 in common withsubstrate transport openings in a side of the process tool assemblymated to the mating interface at the connection ports and defining anequipment boundary EB between the housing of the automation module 2030and the process tool module(s) 2020, 2020A, 2020B, 2020C. It is notedthat the different processing tool modules 2020, 2020A, 2020B, 2020C mayhave different predetermined characteristics and may be interchangeablymateable to the mating interface of the housing. It is also noted thatthe spacing or distance between the connection ports of the processingtool modules may vary and the automation module 2030 is configured toaccommodate this variance in the distance between the connection portsof the processing tool modules at least through, for example, the reachprovided by transfer robots located within the automation modules andvarious mounting arrangements that may couple the automation modules tothe processing tool modules.

It is noted that in one aspect the automation module 2030 may have anysuitable shape such as having orthogonal sides (e.g. an orthogonalshape) as shown in, e.g., FIG. 21A. In other aspects the automationmodule 2030′ may have a wedge shape where the sides of the automationmodule 2030′ are facetted for coupling to any suitable processing toolsor other automation equipment as shown in FIG. 20D. It is noted that thefacetted sides of the automation module 2030′ in FIG. 20D areillustrated as having a convex shape relative to an interior of theautomation module 2030′ but in other aspects one or more of the facettedsides may have a concave shape relative to the interior of theautomation module 2030′. In still other aspects one side of theautomation module may be orthogonal to the ends while the other side maybe facetted as shown in FIG. 20A. As may be realized, a wedge adaptermay be provided for the orthogonal shape transport chamber to allow theorthogonal shape automation module to connect to angled ports of aprocessing tool module. Similarly, an orthogonal adapter may be providedfor the wedge shape automation module so that the wedge shape automationmodule can be connected to orthogonally arranged ports of a processingtool module.

At least one of the ends of the automation module 2030 may include aport 2030P3, 2030P6 (FIGS. 24A, 24B) for coupling the automation module2030 to, for example, the transport tunnel, a load lock, load portmodule and/or any other suitable automation equipment (e.g. equipmentfor processing or otherwise handling substrates). At least one transportrobot 2080, that may be substantially similar to the transport robotsdescribed above, may be disposed at least partly within the automationmodule 2030 for transferring one or more substrates from the transporttunnel (and/or a cart travelling in the transport tunnel) to any one ofthe load locks of the processing tool modules 2020 with substantially asingle touching of the substrate. Where one or more components of theprocessing apparatus are arranged in stacked planes (such as shown inFIG. 20B) the transport robot 2080 may include sufficient Z-motioncapability to provide access to each of the stacked processing planes.In one aspect the automation module 2030 may be connected to the vacuumtunnels 2010A, 2010B (or one or more EFEMs) through any suitable vacuummodule 2040 or any other suitable connecting module. The vacuum module2040 may be a pass through vacuum pod, a load lock, a buffer module, asubstrate aligner module, a shuttle interface for a shuttle or cartlocated within the vacuum tunnels 2010A, 2010B and/or any other suitablemodule. In another aspect the automation module 2030 may besubstantially directly coupled to the vacuum tunnel, such as vacuumtunnel 2050, so that the transfer robot 2080 within the automationmodule 2030 may transfer substrates directly to the vacuum tunnel, suchas to the shuttle or cart within the vacuum tunnel 2050. In still otheraspects, as will be described below, another processing tool module maybe coupled to the automation module 2030 in place of vacuum tunnel 2050so that opposing processing tool modules are communicably coupled toeach other and the vacuum tunnel(s) 2010A, 2010B.

Referring to FIG. 21A a schematic illustration of a processing apparatus2100 substantially similar to processing apparatus 2000 is shown. Inthis aspect the automation module 2030 connects opposing processing toolmodules 2120A, 2120B to, for example, an EFEM 2060. The EFEM 2060includes a housing having a controlled atmosphere therein, load ports2061-2064 for transferring one or more substrates between substratecassettes 2065 and the EFEM 2060, and a transfer robot 2180 configuredto transfer the substrates between the cassettes 2065 and, for example,vacuum module 2040. In one aspect the transfer robot 2180 may besubstantially similar to those described above while in other aspectsthe transfer robot may be any suitable transfer robot. The vacuum module2040 connects the EFEM 2060 with the automation module 2030 and, in thisaspect, may be a load lock configured to provide a transition between anatmosphere of the EFEM 2060 and the atmosphere of the automation module2030 (which may be a vacuum atmosphere). In other aspects, the vacuummodule 2040 may be replaced with an atmospheric module having similarfeatures to vacuum module 2040 but configured to maintain a non-vacuumenvironment therein so that the atmospheric module and the tunnelinterface 2030 are non-vacuum modules (e.g. the transition betweennon-vacuum and vacuum may occur at the load locks 2140A, 2140B when thesubstrates are transferred to the processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B).

Referring also to FIG. 24A the automation module 2030, as describedabove, includes transfer robot 2080. In one aspect the transfer robot2080 may be substantially similar to the transfer robots describedabove. The drive section 2081 of the transfer robot 2080 may also besubstantially similar to drive sections 200, 700 described above. Thedrive section 2081 may be configured to rotate the arm(s) 2082 and endeffector(s) 2083 about the shoulder axis SX as a unit so that the arm(s)2082 can transfer substrates in the direction of arrow 2400 (e.g. alongan a longitudinal axis of the automation module 2030 and/or vacuumtunnel) as well as in the direction of arrow 2401 for transferringsubstrates to both lateral sides of the automation module 2030 (e.g. toload locks 2025, 20206 of both of the opposing processing tool modules).Referring to FIG. 24B, in other aspects the transfer robot 2439 of theautomation module 2030 may include a base link 2450 that is rotatableabout axis X24. It should be understood that the transfer robot 2439 maybe employed in each of the aspects of the disclosed embodiment describedherein in a manner substantially similar to that described herein withrespect to transfer robot 2080. The base link 2450 may be in the form ofa double sided boom and may longitudinally extend in opposite directionsfrom the axis X24 to form a substantially rigid link having twolongitudinal ends that rotate around the axis X24. Any suitable transferarm or arms 2451, 2452 including, but not limited to, selectivecompliant articulated robot arms (SCARA arms), frog leg arms, leapfrogarms, bi-symmetric arms, lost motion mechanical switch type arms or anyother suitable arm having one or more end effectors (as described above)may be mounted to each end of the base link 2450 at a respectiveshoulder axis SX1, SX2.

The transfer robot 2439 may include a drive section 2450D locatedsubstantially about or proximate to axis of rotation X24 that isconfigured to rotate the base link 2450 about axis X24. The drivesection 2450D may be any suitable drive and be connected to the baselink 2450 in any suitable manner such as through any suitabletransmission. A drive section 2451D, 2452D substantially similar to thatdescribed above with respect to, e.g., FIGS. 2H-2J may be located atrespective ends of the base link 2450 for driving respective ones of thearms 2451, 2452. In other aspects the drive section 2451D, 2452D may beany suitable drive sections having any suitable configuration. The drivesections 2451D, 2452D may be configured to cause extension andretraction of the respective arm(s) in the directions of arrows 2400,2401 along respective axes of extension/retraction 2490, 2491, 2492through the ports of the automation module 2030 for picking and placingsubstrates from/to the load locks 2025, 2026 of the process toolmodules, the carts travelling in the vacuum tunnels, or any othersuitable substrate holding location connected to one of the ports. Inone aspect the drive sections 2451D, 2452D may be configured to rotatetheir respective arms as a unit about the respective shoulder axes SX1,SX2 and drive 2450D may be configured to rotate the base link 2450 sothat each arm 2451, 2452 can extend/retract along axis 2492 fortransferring substrates through ports 2030P3, 2030P6. In addition toextension/retraction through both ports 2030P3, 2030P6, as can be seenin FIG. 24B the arms 2451, 2452 may be configured for substantiallystraight line extension and the side by side configuration of the arms2451, 2452 may allow arm 2451 to extend through ports 2030P1, 2030P4(with rotation of the base link 2450) and allow arm 2452 to extendthrough ports 2030P2, 2030P5 (with rotation of the base link 2450). Inother aspects, the side by side configuration of the arms 2451, 2452 mayallow arm 2451 to extend through ports 2030P2, 2030P4 (without rotationof the base link 2450 but with rotation of the arm 2451 about axis SX1)and allow arm 2452 to extend through ports 2030P1, 2030P5 (withoutrotation of the base link 2450 but with rotation of the arm 2451 aboutaxis SX2).

The arms 2451, 2452 of the transfer robot 2439 may also be configuredand controlled, such as by controller 120 (FIG. 1), to hand offsubstrates from one arm 2451, 2452 to the other arm 2451, 2452. Forexample, in one aspect substrates may be handed off between the arms2451, 2452 substantially directly. In another aspect the substrates maybe placed at a substrate holding location 2471 located within theautomation module 2030 apart from the transfer arm 2439 by one of thearms 2451, 2452 so that the other one of the arms 2451, 2452 can pickthe substrate from the holding location 2471 for transferring thesubstrates from one arm 2451, 2452 to the other arm 2451, 2452. In stillother aspects the base arm 2450 may include a substrate holding locationsimilar to substrate holding location 2471 (e.g. the substrate holdinglocation is mounted to the base arm 2450) so that substrate may betransferred from one arm to the other arm in a manner substantiallysimilar to that described above with respect to substrate holdinglocation 2471.

Referring to FIGS. 24C and 24D the transfer robots 2080, 2439 may bemounted within the automation module 2030 in, for example, a verticallyopposing arrangement in a manner substantially similar to that describedabove with respect to FIG. 2G. For example, in one aspect the arm 2080may be mounted to a top of the automation module 2030 while the arm 2439is mounted to a bottom of the automation module 2030 or vice versa. Inother aspects, a first transfer arm 2080 may be mounted to the top ofthe automation module and a second arm 2080 may be mounted to the bottomof the automation module. In still other aspects, a first transfer arm2439 may be mounted to the top of the automation module and a second arm2439 may be mounted to the bottom of the automation module. As may berealized, each the transfer arms 2080, 2439 may be movable in thedirection of arrow 299 and controlled in any suitable manner, such as bycontroller 120, for aligning the substrate carried by the transfer arms2080, 2439 with the transfer planes PL of each of the vacuum tunnels2010 as well as the transfer planes of the processing tool modules 2020,2020A, 2020B, 2020C. The transfer robots 2080, 2439 may also becontrolled in any suitable manner for transferring substrates betweenthe automation module 2030 and any one or more of the tunnels 2010 (e.g.by reaching into the tunnel for transferring substrates to/from a cartand/or for transfer of a substrate to/from a substrate holder on thecart that is extended into the automation module) and processing toolmodules 2020, 2020A, 2020B, 2020C. As may be realized the transferrobots may be rotated about their respective axes X, X24 so that onetransfer robot 2080, 2439 does not interfere with the operation of theother transfer robot 2080, 2439.

The processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B may be coupled to the lateralsides of the automation module 2030 so that the processing tool modules2120A, 2120B (or any other suitable modules capable of holding orotherwise processing substrates) are arranged in an opposingconfiguration. The processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B may besubstantially similar to those described above. In other aspects theprocessing tool modules may have any suitable configuration. Forexample, processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B may include a transfermodule 2121 that includes one or more transfer chambers 2121TC1, 2121TC2each having processing chambers 2122 coupled thereto. Each transferchamber 2121TC1, 2121TC2 may include any suitable transfer robot 2150such that substrates are transferred between the transfer chambers2121TC1, 2121TC2 through direct robot to robot transfer or through asubstrate holding station 2160A, 2160B (which may be a buffer, aligner,heater, cooler or any other suitable holding station). In one aspect thetransfer module 2121 may be connected to the automation module 2030 by,for example, load locks 2140A, 2140B, while in other aspects thetransfer module 2121 may be coupled substantially directly to theautomation module 2030.

Referring to FIG. 21B other substrate holding stations, processingchambers and/or vacuum tunnels may be connected to the automation module2030 in any suitable manner. For example, any suitable module 2170 (e.g.a substrate aligner, heater, cooler, buffer, etc.) may be coupled to theautomation module 2030 opposite the vacuum module 2040. Referring alsoto FIG. 21C, a vacuum module 2040A (which may be substantially similarto vacuum module 2040) and/or a vacuum tunnel 2010 may be coupled to theautomation module opposite the vacuum module 2040 to modularly increasethe processing capacity of the processing apparatus. For example, as canbe seen in FIG. 21C, another automation module 2030A is coupled to thevacuum tunnel 2010 so that additional processing tool modules 2120C,2120D (which are connected to the automation module in a mannersubstantially similar to that described above) may be added to theprocessing apparatus. As may be realized, any suitable number ofadditional vacuum modules 2040, vacuum tunnels 2010, vacuum interfacemodules and processing tool modules may be added to the processingapparatus in a manner substantially similar to that described above.

Referring to FIG. 22A a processing apparatus 2200 is schematically shownin accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment. The processingapparatus 2200 may be substantially similar to processing apparatus 2100described above, however, the automation module 2030 in this aspect isconnected to the EFEM 2060 through vacuum tunnel 2010 and vacuum module2040. Each of the vacuum tunnels 2010 and/or vacuum modules 2040 may beconfigured for transporting or otherwise holding one or more substratesat the same time as will be described below. As may be realized, in amanner substantially similar to that described above, the processingapparatus 2200 may also be expanded as shown in FIG. 22B to increase theprocessing capacity of the processing apparatus by adding any suitablenumber of additional vacuum modules 2040, vacuum tunnels 2010A and/orautomation modules 2030A. It is noted that coupled or otherwiseconnected vacuum modules 2040, vacuum tunnels 2010 and automationmodules 2030 extend along a transport axis TX to form a modular tunnelthat can be extended to any suitable length by adding, for example, thevacuum modules 2040, vacuum tunnels 2010 and automation modules 2030noted above. As may also be realized, the vacuum modules such as vacuummodule 2040′ may include ports 2040C1-2040C4 on one or more sides suchthat other modules may be connected to the vacuum module 2040′ forchanging a direction in which the transport axis TX extends. The vacuummodule 2040′ may include a rotation module 2040RR that may rotate thesubstrate so that the crystal structure of the substrate is maintainedin a predetermined alignment position as the substrate transitions fromtransport path TX1 to transport path TX2. The rotation module 2040RR maybe part of a substrate buffer or an indexer/elevator that may facilitatethe handoff of substrates between two or more transfer robots within theautomation module 2030 and a transport cart travelling along thetransport paths TX1, TX2.

The processing apparatus described herein may also be configured toallow entry/exit of substrates to/from the processing apparatus in morethan one location in the processing apparatus. For example, referring toFIG. 23A, an EFEM 2060A, 2060B may be connected to both ends of thetransport tunnel formed by the vacuum modules 2040A, 2040B, 2040C, thevacuum tunnel 2010 and the automation modules 2030A, 2030B. Here, in oneaspect, substrates may enter the processing apparatus through EFEM 2060Aand exit through EFEM 2060B or vice versa. In other aspects thesubstrates may enter and exit through any one or more of EFEM 2060A and2060B. Referring also to FIG. 23B an entry/exit point foradding/removing substrates to/from the processing apparatus may also belocated between the ends of the transport tunnel. For example, vacuummodules, such as vacuum module 2040′, may be added to the transporttunnel to allow connection of an EFEM 2060C at a midpoint, or at anyother point between the ends of the transport tunnel. Here, in oneaspect, substrates may enter the processing apparatus through EFEM 2060Aand exit through EFEM 2060B and/or EFEM 2060C; enter the processingapparatus through EFEM 2060B and exit through EFEM 2060A and/or EFEM2060C; enter the processing apparatus through EFEM 2060C and exitthrough EFEM 2060A and/or EFEM 2060B. In other aspects the substratesmay enter or exit through any one or more of EFEM 2060A, 2060B and 2060Cto form any suitable process flow through the processing apparatus.

Referring now to FIGS. 25A and 25B, the vacuum tunnel 2010 may includeone or more vacuum tunnel modules 2500A-2500 n that may be sealinglycoupled together to form a vacuum tunnel having any suitable length.Each vacuum tunnel module 2500A-2500 n may include a connection port2500P at each end of the vacuum tunnel module 2500A-2500 n to allowconnection of the vacuum tunnel modules to each other and/or any othersuitable module of the processing apparatus described herein. In thisaspect, each vacuum tunnel module 2500 includes at least one transportcart guide 2510 and at least one motor component 2520 for driving atleast one transport cart 2530 through a respective vacuum tunnel module2500. It is noted that the ports 2500P may be sized to allow passage ofthe transport carts through the ports. As may be realized, when two ormore vacuum tunnel modules 2500 are coupled to each other the at leastone transport cart guide 2510 of each vacuum chamber module 2500 form asubstantially continuous transport cart guide that extends through thevacuum tunnel 2010 for allowing passage of the transport cart 2530between longitudinal ends 2010E1, 2010E2 of the vacuum tunnel 2010. Theat least one motor component 2520 of each of the vacuum chamber modules2500 also form a substantially continuous motor component that allowsfor substantially continuous driving movement of the transport cartbetween the ends 210E1, 2010E2 of the vacuum tunnel 2010.

Referring also to FIGS. 26A, 26B, 26C and 27B each of the at least onetransport cart 2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′ may include a base 2530B, 2530B′and at least one substrate holder 2530S, 2531S, 2530S′, 2531S′ extendingfrom the base 2530B, 2530B′. In one aspect the substrate holder 2530S,2531S, 2530S′, 2531S′ may be cantilevered from a respective base 2530B,2530B′ while in other aspects the substrate holder 2530S, 2531S, 2530S′,2531S′ may be supported from the respective base 2530B, 2530B′ in anysuitable manner. The substrate holder 2530S, 2531S, 2530S′, 2531S′ mayhave any suitable shape for actively or passively gripping/holding oneor more substrates S as will be described in greater detail below. Thebase 2530B, 2530B′ may be configured in any suitable manner to interfacewith a respective one of the at least one motor component 2520, 2521,2520′, 2521′ and a respective one of the at least one transport cartguide 2510, 2510′ for allowing movement of the transport cart 2530,2531, 2530′, 2531′ through the vacuum tunnel 2010. As may be realized,where the vacuum tunnel includes more than one transport cart, each ofthe transport carts may transfer substrates within the tunnel at thesame time other transport carts are transporting substrates within thetunnel (i.e. more than one substrate can be transported in the tunnel atthe same time). While, in one aspect, the transport cart 2530 is shownand described herein as being a passive transport cart (e.g. the carthas a substantially fixed and stationary substrate holder) in otheraspects the transport cart may be an active cart including a cart bornetransfer arm having one or more articulated links that can extend pastthe ends of the vacuum tunnel 2010. Suitable examples of transport cartscan be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,197,177; 8,129,984;7,959,395; 7,901,539; 7,575,406; and 5,417,537 and United Statespublication numbers 2012/0076626; 2011/0158773; 2010/0329827;2009/0078374 and 2009/0191030 the disclosures of which are incorporatedherein by reference in their entireties.

As can be seen in FIGS. 26A, 26B, 26C and 27B the base 2530B, 2530B′ isgenerally located towards a lateral side of the vacuum chamber module2500, 2500′ but in other aspects the base may be located in any suitablelocation. The substrate holders 2530S, 2531S, 2530S′, 2531S′ are alsogenerally shown as extending from the base 2530B, 2530B′ towards acenterline CL of the vacuum chamber module 2500, 2500′ but in otheraspects the substrate holders 2530S, 2531S, 2530S′, 2531S′ may extend inany suitable direction for supporting the substrates S within the vacuumchamber modules 2500, 2500′. As may be realized, where there are morethan one transport cart 2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′ within the vacuumchamber module 2500, 2500′ the substrate holders 2530S, 2531S, 2530S′,2531S′ may be disposed in different spaced apart planes 2698, 2699 sothat the transport carts 2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′ may pass by oneanother within the vacuum chamber modules 2500, 2500′. While there areonly two planes 2698, 2699 shown in the Figs. is should be understoodthat there may be any suitable number of transfer planes andcorresponding substrate holders operating in those transfer planes. Asmay be realized, the transport robots interfacing with the transportcarts 2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′ may have any suitable amount ofZ-movement capability for accessing substrates carried along eithertransport plane 2698, 2699.

The at least one motor component 2520 and transport cart guide 2510 ofeach vacuum chamber module 2500 may be any suitable motor component andguide for interfacing with and driving the transport cart 2530 throughthe vacuum tunnel 2010. In one aspect, as shown in FIGS. 25A-26C the atleast one motor component may be located on the lateral sides of each ofthe vacuum chamber modules 2500. In other aspects, referring to FIGS.27A and 27B, the at least one motor component may be disposed on abottom or top of each of the vacuum chamber modules 2500. For example,the motor component 2520 may be or include any component of any suitabledrive system such as a magnetic levitation drive (e.g. having stationarywindings that drive and levitate the transport cart), chain/cable drive(e.g. where the cart is pulled/pushed through the vacuum tunnel by thechain/cable), ball screw drive (e.g. where the cart is pulled/pushedthrough the vacuum tunnel by the ball screw), magnetic coupling drive(e.g. where a movable magnet is driven along the length of the vacuumtunnel and the transport cart includes magnets that are magneticallycoupled to the movable magnet such that as the movable magnet is drivenalong the length of the vacuum tunnel the transport cart driven with themovable magnet) or any combination thereof or any other suitable drive.The transport cart guide 2510 may be, for example, a contact guidemember (e.g. one or more rails, rollers, bearings, etc.) or acontactless guide member (e.g. magnetic, magnetic levitation) guidemembers. Suitable examples of non-contact and contact transport cartguides and drive systems can be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos.8,197,177; 8,129,984; 7,959,395; 7,901,539; 7,575,406; and 5,417,537 andUnited States publication numbers 2012/0076626; 2011/0158773;2010/0329827; 2009/0191030; and 2009/0078374 the disclosures of whichare incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

In one aspect as shown in FIGS. 26A, 26B, 26C and 27B, the at least onetransport cart guide 2510 may be a rail or bearing along which the base2530B, 2530B′ rides. As may be realized, the at least one transport cartguide 2510, 2510′ in this aspect may physically support (e.g. contact) arespective transport cart 2530. The at least one motor component 2520may include one or more stationary windings 2520W and the transport cart2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′ may include one or more magnetic platens 2530Pthat interface with the windings 2520W for driving a respective one ofthe at least one transport cart 2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′ along arespective one of the at least one transport cart guide 2510, 2510′. Themagnetic platens 2530P may be integral with or otherwise affixed to thetransport cart base 2530B, 2530B′ in any suitable manner. The at leastone motor component 2520, 2521 may be connected to any suitablecontroller, such as controller 120 (FIG. 1) where the controller 120 isconfigured or otherwise programmed to control the windings for driving arespective one of the transport cart 2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′. Anysuitable shield(s) 2620, 2620′ may be disposed adjacent the at least onetransport cart guide 2510, 2510′ to substantially contain any particlesgenerated by the interaction of the at least one transport cart guide2510, 2510′ and the at least one transport cart 2530, 2531, 2530′, 2531′for preventing the migration of the particles onto the substrates Sbeing transported within the vacuum tunnel 2010. As may be realized, anysuitable position feedback device(s) 2610 may be included on one or moreof the at least one transport cart 2530 and vacuum chamber module 2500for tracking a position of the at least one transport cart 2530 betweenthe ends of the transport tunnel formed by the coupled vacuum chambermodules 2500A-2500 n. The position feedback device(s) 2610 may beconnected to the controller 120 for sending signals to the controllerthat may be used for controlling the windings 2520W (e.g. to drive theat least one transport cart 2530 to a predetermined position within thetransport tunnel). Suitable examples of position feedback devices can befound in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,129,984 and United States patentpublication 2009/0033316 the disclosures of which are incorporated byreference herein in their entireties.

Referring to FIG. 28A, a portion of a vacuum tunnel 2800 (which may besubstantially similar to vacuum tunnel 2010) is shown having two vacuumtunnel modules 2500 for exemplary purposes only. In one aspect thesubstrate holders 2530S, 2531S of the transport carts 2530, 2531operating in the vacuum tunnel 2800 may be configured to extendlongitudinally within the vacuum tunnel 2800 so that each substrateholder 2530S, 2531S extends out of the tunnel by a predetermineddistance DE for transferring the substrate S held on the substrateholders 2530S, 2531S to any suitable substrate holding station such asvacuum modules 2040, 2040A, 2040B or handing off the substrates Ssubstantially directly to a transfer robot located within, for example,EFEM 2060 or automation module 2030. In other aspects the substrateholders 2530S, 2531S may have any suitable configuration or shape. Inthis aspect the substrate holders 2530S, 2531S are facing in a commondirection, e.g. towards longitudinal end 2800E1 of the vacuum tunnel2800 and as such the substrate holders 2530S, 2530S1 may only extendpast the end 2800E1 for transferring substrates S. As may be realized,any automation, such as the transfer robots described herein, located atlongitudinal end 2800E2 of the vacuum tunnel 2800 may be configured toextend into the vacuum tunnel 2800 by a predetermined amount DL forpicking and placing substrates S substantially directly to the substrateholders 2530S, 2531S.

Referring to FIGS. 28B and 28C a portion of a vacuum tunnel 2800′ isshown having two vacuum tunnel modules 2500 and an interface module 2820for exemplary purposes only. As can be seen in FIG. 28 there are twotransport carts 2530, 2531 (which may be substantially similar to thetransport carts described above with respect to FIG. 28A) operating inthe vacuum tunnel 2800′. In this aspect of the disclosed embodiment, thesubstrate holders 2530S, 2531S of the transport carts also extendlongitudinally within the vacuum tunnel 2800′ but rather than extend ina common direction the substrate holders extend in opposite directions(substrate holder 2530S extends towards end 2800E1 and substrate holder2531S extends towards end 2800E2). In this aspect, the substrate holder2530S extends past the end 2800E1 of the vacuum tunnel 2800′ fortransferring substrates between the substrate holder 2530S and anysuitable substrate holding station and/or transfer robot in a mannersimilar to that described above with respect to FIG. 28A. Similarly, thesubstrate holder 2531S extends past the end 2800E2 of the vacuum tunnel2800′ for transferring substrates between the substrate holder 2531S andany suitable substrate holding station and/or transfer robot in a mannersimilar to that described above with respect to FIG. 28A. In one aspect,substrates placed on the substrate holder 2531S are transferred tosubstrate holder 2530S to allow the substrate to be transferred to asubstrate holding location of transfer robot as substrate holder 2531Sis not capable of extending past the end 2800E1 and vice versa. As such,at least one interface module 2820 may be disposed between vacuum tunnelmodules 2500 and be configured to allow transfer of substrates S betweenthe substrate holders 2530S, 2531S. For example, the interface module2820 may include a substrate support 2820E that is movable in thedirection of arrow 2899 (e.g. in a direction substantially perpendicularto a transfer plane of the substrates). The interface module 2820 mayinclude guide rails and motors components for the transport carts 2530,2531 in a manner substantially similar to that described above withrespect to the vacuum chamber modules. The substrate support 2820E maybe configured to allow the transport carts 2530, 2531 to pass throughthe interface module 2820 and to allow the alignment of the substrates Sheld on the substrate holders 2530S, 2531S with the substrate support2820E for transferring the substrates between the substrate holders2530S, 2531S. For example, to transfer a substrate from transport cart2531 to transport cart 2530 the controller 120 (FIG. 1) may control thetransport cart 2531 so that the transport cart 2531 is positioned toalign the substrate with the substrate support 2820E. The substratesupport 2820E may move in the direction of arrow 2899 to lift thesubstrate S from the substrate holder 2531S. The controller 120 maycause the transport cart 2531 to move away from the substrate support2820E and control the transport cart 2530 for aligning the substrateholder 2530S with the substrate support 2820E. The substrate support2820E may move in the direction 2899 for placing the substrate S on thesubstrate holder 2530S. As may be realized, in one aspect, any suitablesensors 2820SS may also be provided in the interface module 2820 and thesubstrate support 2820E may be rotatable so that the sensors may scan asubstrate rotated by the substrate support 2820E for aligning thesubstrate to a predetermined orientation. In another aspect, thesubstrate support 2820E may be movable in the direction of arrow 2898 byany suitable drive mechanism such that the sensors 2820SS may scan thesubstrate and the substrate support 2820E may move in the direction ofarrow 2898 for centering the substrate on the substrate holders of thetransport carts.

Referring to FIGS. 30A and 30B in one aspect of the disclosed embodimentthe transport carts operating within the vacuum tunnels may includerotatable substrate holders so that each transport cart can extend pastboth ends of the vacuum tunnel. For example, transport cart 3030 (whichmay be substantially similar to transport carts 2530, 2531) includes abase 3030B configured to ride along the guide member 2510, 2510′ and asubstrate holder support section 3030S. A substrate holder 3030S1 may berotatably mounted to the substrate holder support section 3030S in anysuitable manner so that the substrate holder 3030S1 rotates about axisRX. A drive coupling member 3030M may be coupled to the substrate holder3030S1 for rotating the substrate holder 3030S1 about the axis RX atleast about 180° so that the substrate holder can extend past both endsof the vacuum tunnel. As may be realized, the substrate holder 3030S1and/or the drive coupling member 3030M may include any suitablemechanical or solid state locking mechanism(s) 3030L for holding thesubstrate holder 3030S1 in a predetermined position for allowing thesubstrate holder to extend past the ends of the vacuum tunnel fortransferring substrates to and from the substrate holder. In one aspecta length LL of the substrate holder 3030S1 and its configuration may besuch that the substrate holder 3030S1 may rotate at any point within thevacuum tunnel. In other aspects the length LL of the substrate holder3030S1 may be such that the substrate holder 3030S1 is not capable ofrotating within a width WW (FIG. 31A) of the vacuum tunnel. Referringalso to FIG. 31A, to allow rotation of the of the substrate holder3030S1 the vacuum tunnel 3100 (which may be substantially similar tovacuum tunnel 2010) may include an orientation module 3120. Theorientation module 3120 may include guide rails and motor components ina manner substantially similar to that described above to allow thetransport cart 3030 to pass through the orientation module 3120. Theorientation module 3120 may have a housing shaped to allow the substrateholder 3030S1 to rotate for changing a direction of the substrate holder3030S1. In this aspect the orientation module 3120 is shown such thatthe housing has a substantially circular shaped portion 3120R forallowing rotation of the substrate holder 3030S1 but in other aspectsthe housing may have any suitable shape and/or configuration. A drive3110 may be disposed within the orientation module 3120 for interfacingwith the drive coupling member 3030M of the transport cart 3030. Forexample, the drive coupling member 3030M and the drive 3110 may includeone or more magnets for magnetically coupling the drive coupling member3030M to the drive in a non-contact manner. In other aspects the drivecoupling member 3030M and the drive 3110 may be coupled to each other inany suitable manner. It is noted that the locking mechanism(s) 3030L maybe configured such that when the when the drive coupling member 3030Mand the drive 3110 are coupled the locking mechanism(s) release to allowrotation of the substrate holder 3030S1 and when the drive couplingmember 3030M and the drive 3110 are de-coupled the locking mechanism(s)3030L are engaged. In operation the controller 120 (FIG. 1) may move thetransport cart 3030 to align the drive coupling member 3030M with thedrive 3110 within the orientation module 3120. The drive 3110 may beoperated to rotate the substrate holder 3030S1 at least about 180° sothat the substrate holder is facing substantially in an oppositedirection (compared to the direction of the substrate holder beforerotation) to allow the substrate holder 3030S1 to extend past both endsof the vacuum tunnel 3100.

As may be realized, and as noted above, the substrate holders describedherein may be configured to hold more than one substrate. For example,referring to FIG. 29, the substrate holders may be configured for batchtransfer of substrates. For example, a batch substrate holder 2930 mayinclude any suitable number of spaced apart substrate supports 2930S1,2930S2 for holding substrates in different spaced apart planes. Thesubstrate holders may also include double ended substrate holders 3030S2as shown in FIG. 31C capable of holding at least two substrates in linewith each other substantially in the same plane. In other aspects thesubstrate holders may have any suitable combination of spaced apartsubstrate holders (e.g. for holding substrates in different planes) anddouble ended substrate holders. As may also be realized, the transportcarts, such as those described above, may allow for the fast swapping ofsubstrates. For example, where each cart has substrate holders facingthe same direction one transport cart may pick a substrate and the othertransport cart may place a substrate in substantially immediatesuccession. Where a transport cart includes a batch substrate holder onesupport in the batch holder may be left empty such that a processedsubstrate can be placed on the empty support while an unprocessedsubstrate is removed from another support and vice versa insubstantially immediate succession. Where the substrate holder includesa double ended substrate holder an orientation chamber 3120 may beplaced at the ends of the vacuum tunnel such that one side of the doubleended substrate holder may pick a substrate, the holder may be rotatedand the other side of the double ended substrate holder may place asubstrate in substantially immediate succession.

As noted above, in one aspect one or more of the transport cartsdescribed herein may include a transfer arm disposed on the transfercart that is capable of extending and retracting for picking and placingsubstrate to a location outside of the vacuum tunnel or otherwise beyondthe ends of the vacuum tunnel. For example, referring to FIG. 32 thetransport cart 3200 includes an arm 3200A having extendable arm links.The links may be connected to each other in any suitable manner so thatas the base link 3201 rotates the substrate holder 3203 is constrainedto extend/retract along the transport path TX. In one aspect thetransport cart 3200 may include a base arm drive that may be configuredto engage a cam 3200C located as a predetermined position within avacuum tunnel module 2500 (such as at an end of the vacuum tunnel or anysuitable location where the arm is to extend to transfer substrates)such that as the transport cart passes the cam 3200C the cam engages thebase arm drive to cause rotation of the base arm 3201 for extending thesubstrate holder 3203. To retract the substrate holder 3203 thetransport cart may move away from the cam. The arm 3200A may be biasedto the retracted configuration, such as through springs or other biasingmembers, so that as the base arm drive disengages the cam the arm isretracted. In other aspects, the extension of the arm may be driventhrough a magnetic coupling drive. For example, motor components 3301,3302 may be located in a vacuum tunnel module 2500 at predeterminedpositions within the vacuum tunnel (such as at an end of the vacuumtunnel or any suitable location where the arm is to extend to transfersubstrates). The motor components 3301, 3302 may be configured to drivemovable platens 3310A, 3310B of the transport cart 3320 for extendingand retracting the arm 3320A such as in the manner described in U.S.Pat. No. 7,959,395, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety. In still other aspects the arm carried by thetransport cart may be driven in any suitable manner.

As may be realized, in the aspects of the disclosed embodimentsdescribed herein, where substrates are transported by, for example, atransport cart moving within the vacuum tunnel any automation (e.g.aligners, robots, buffers, etc. as described above) may includeZ-movement capabilities for picking and placing substrate from/to thesubstrate holder on the transport cart. In other aspects, the transportcarts may include Z-movement capability for picking and placingsubstrates.

Referring to FIGS. 34A and 34B a batch load lock 3400A-D is shown. Thebatch load lock 3400A-D may be substantially similar to that describedin U.S. patent Ser. No. 12/123,391 filed on May 19, 2008 the disclosureof which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In oneaspect the batch load lock 3400 may be substantially directly coupled toa load port 3420 in any suitable manner. The batch load lock 3400 mayinclude any suitable automation, such as e.g. a transfer arm, fortransferring substrates to and from a substrate carrier 3420A-3420D. Thebatch load lock 3400A-D may form an automation interface similar to thatdescribed above with respect to automation module 2030. For example,FIG. 34A illustrates a portion of a processing apparatus in accordancewith aspects of the disclosed embodiment. The processing apparatusincludes process tool modules 2120A, 2020B each having, e.g., load locks3530 coupled thereto. A batch load lock 3400A, 3400B, 3400C, 3400D maybe coupled to each of the load locks 3530. One or more vacuum tunnels2010A, 2010B may be connected to the batch load lock 3400A, 3400B,3400C, 3400D. For exemplary purposes only, vacuum tunnel 2010A mayconnect batch load lock 3400B with batch load lock 3400C which alsoconnects processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B to each other fortransporting substrates between processing tool modules 2120A, 2120Bwithout returning the substrates to the substrate carrier 3430 fortransport on any suitable automated material handling system (AMHS)3510. A vacuum module 2040 may couple the vacuum tunnel 2010B to batchload lock 3400D for connecting the batch load lock 3400D (and theremainder of the processing apparatus) to, for example, an EFEM or otherautomation equipment. In this aspect each of the batch load locks 3400A,3400B, 3400C, 3400D may be substantially directly coupled to a load port3420A, 3420B, 3420C, 3420D which interfaces each of the batch load locks3400A, 3400B, 3400C, 3400D to the AMHS 3510. FIG. 34B illustrates aportion of a processing apparatus similar to that shown in FIG. 34A inaccordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment. However, in FIG.34B the batch load locks 3400A, 3400B, 3400C, 3400D are coupledsubstantially directly to the processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B andfunction as a load lock between the load ports 3420A, 3420B, 3420C,3420D and the respective processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B.

Referring to FIGS. 35A, 35B and 35C a portion of a processing apparatusis shown in accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment. In thisaspect the processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B may be connected to eachother through vacuum tunnel 2010B and to other processing tool modules(or other suitable automation equipment) through vacuum tunnels 2010A,2010C. Here the vacuum tunnels 2010A, 2010B are connected to theprocessing tool module through batch load locks 3400A, 3400B. As can beseen in FIG. 35A load ports 3420A, 3420B are coupled to each of thebatch load locks 3400A, 3400B. The vacuum tunnels 2010B, 2010C areconnected to processing tool 2120B through load locks 3500A, 3500B whichmay be any suitable load locks. Here, the load locks 3500A, 3500B arecoupled to the automation module 2030 and the automation module iscoupled to the batch load locks 3400C, 3400D. Load ports 3420C, 3420Dare coupled to the batch load locks 3400C, 3400D in any suitable manner.It should be understood that while the batch load locks are illustratedas interfacing with front opening unified pods (FOUPs) in other aspectsthe batch load locks may be configured to interface with any suitablesubstrate carriers such as bottom opening carriers or top loadingcarriers.

Referring to FIGS. 36A-36C a portion of a processing apparatus is shownin accordance with aspects of the disclosed embodiment. Processing toolmodules 2120A, 2120B are disposed on lateral sides of load lock 3610. Inthis aspect the load lock 3610 is shown as having a wedge shape so as tocouple with the transfer chamber 2120TC of the processing tool modules2120A, 2120B. As may be realized, substrates located at the, e.g., twosubstrate holding locations (e.g. 3620A, 3620B) may be transported toand from the processing tool modules 2120A, 2120B alongconverging/diverging paths that correspond to an angle of the wedgeshape. In other aspects, the load lock may have any suitable shapeand/or configuration, such as an orthogonal shape (see load lock 3610′in FIG. 36D) configured to allow coupling with the processing toolmodules 2120A′, 2120B′. As may be realized, the orthogonal shape loadlock 3610′ may allow transfer of substrates between the processing toolmodules and each of the substrate holding locations 3620A, 3620B alongsubstantially parallel paths as shown in FIG. 36D. As may be realized,wedge adapter and orthogonal adapters may be provided for the orthogonalload lock 3610′ and the wedge load lock 3610 in a manner substantiallysimilar to that described above with respect to the automation module sothat the wedge load lock 3610 may be connected to orthogonally arrangedports of a processing tool module and the orthogonal load lock can beconnected to angularly arranged ports of a processing tool module.Vacuum tunnels 2800′ may be coupled to each of the longitudinal ends ofthe load lock 3610, 3610′. As described above, the each of the vacuumtunnels may include a transport cart including one or more double endedsubstrate holders 3030S2 as shown in FIG. 31C capable of holding atleast two substrates in line with each other substantially in the sameplane. As also described above, each of the vacuum tunnels 2800′ mayinclude interface module 2820. The interface module 2820 may include asubstrate support 2820E (FIG. 28C) that is movable in the direction ofarrow 2899 (e.g. in a direction substantially perpendicular to atransfer plane of the substrates). As may be realized, where there aretwo or more transport carts having double ended substrate holders 3030S2travelling through the tunnel each of the transport carts may be holdingat least one substrate at the same time (e.g. every one of the carts cantransport and pick or place substrates to both ends of the respectivevacuum tunnels 2800′ independent of other transport carts in therespective tunnel 2800′). In this aspect the interface module may alloweach of the carts to transfer substrates to both ends of the vacuumtunnels 2800′. For example, transport cart 3670 may pick a substratefrom any suitable substrate holding location at end 2800E1 of the vacuumtunnel 2800′ with end 3650 of the double ended substrate holder 3030S2.To place that substrate at any suitable substrate holding location atend 2800E2 of vacuum tunnel 2800′ the transport cart 3670 may bepositioned so that the substrate is placed over substrate support 2820Eof the interface module 2820. The substrate support 2820E may move inthe direction of arrow 2899 to lift the substrate off of end 3650. Thetransport cart 3670 may move to place the end 3651 of the double endedsubstrate holder 3030S2 over the substrate support 2820E and thesubstrate support may move in the direction of arrow 2899 for placingthe substrate on the end 2651 so that the substrate can be placed at end2800E2 of the vacuum tunnel 2800′.

As can also be seen in FIGS. 36A-36C, and as described above, the vacuumtunnels 2800′, 3600 may be stacked one above the other. In this aspectthe load lock 3610 may include at least one indexer 3620A, 3620B that isconfigured to move in the direction of arrow 3899 for transferring thesubstrates between the different transport planes of the vacuum tunnels2800′, 3600. The indexer 3620A, 3620B may be configured such that thesubstrate holders of the transport carts travelling within the vacuumtunnels can pick and place substrates to the indexer (where the indexerlifts and lowers the substrates on off and on the substrate holders).The indexers 3620A, 3620B may also provide rotation of the substratesto, for example, aligning the substrates in a manner substantiallysimilar to that described above with respect to interface module 2820.In one aspect one of the stacked vacuum tunnels 3600 may be an “express”tunnel that provides substantially non-stop travel between two locationsof the processing apparatus without stopping at possible intermediatedestinations while other ones of the vacuum tunnels 2800′ may providefor stops at the two locations as well as the intermediate destination.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment atransfer apparatus is provided for transporting substrates in a transferchamber having a first end and a second end and two sides extendingbetween the ends, each side having at least two linearly arrangedsubstrate holding stations and each end having at least one substrateholding station. The transfer apparatus includes a drive section, atleast one base arm fixed at one end with respect to the transfer chamberand including at least one arm link rotatably coupled to the drivesection and at least one transfer arm rotatably coupled to a common endof the base arm where the at least one transfer arm has two endeffectors. The drive section has motors with three independent axes ofrotation defining three degrees of freedom. One degree of freedom of thedrive section moves the at least one base arm horizontally fortransporting the at least one transfer arm within the transfer chamberand two degrees of freedom of the drive section drives the at least onetransfer arm to extend the at least one transfer arm, retract the atleast one transfer arm and swap the two end effectors.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetransfer apparatus is configured to transfer substrates between the atleast two linearly arranged substrate holding stations on each side ofthe transfer chamber and to the at least one substrate holding stationlocated on each of the first and second ends of the transfer chamber.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theat least one substrate holding station located between one or more ofthe first and second ends of the transfer chamber includes three inlineload locks or four inline load locks.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thetransfer apparatus is configured to handle 450 mm diameter wafers.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thetransfer apparatus is configured to handle 200 mm diameter wafers, 300mm diameter wafers, or flat panels for flat panel displays, lightemitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes or solar arrays.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thedrive section includes a coaxial drive shaft arrangement.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thedrive section includes a z-axis drive configured to linearly move the atleast one transfer arm in a direction substantially perpendicular to anaxis of extension and retraction of the at least one transfer arm.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theat least one base arm includes at least one arm link rotatably mountedat one end to the drive section at a drive axis and the at least onetransfer arm is rotatably mounted to a second opposite end of the atleast one arm link at a shoulder axis.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment, thedrive section includes a one degree of freedom drive disposed at thedrive axis and a two degree of freedom drive disposed at the shoulderaxis.

In accordance with one or more aspects of aspects of the disclosedembodiment the one degree of freedom drive comprises a harmonic drive.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetwo degree of freedom drive comprises a coaxial drive having an innerand outer drive shaft, wherein the outer drive shaft is rotatableindependent of the inner drive shaft and supported by support bearingsof the inner drive shaft.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theat least one base arm includes an upper arm link having first and secondends, and a forearm link having first and second ends, the upper armlink being rotatably mounted to the drive section at the first end abouta drive axis and the forearm link being rotatably mounted at a first endto the second end of the upper arm link. The at least one transfer armbeing rotatably mounted to the second end of the forearm link at ashoulder axis of rotation. In a further aspect of the disclosedembodiment the forearm link is slaved to the drive section so that theshoulder axis of rotation is substantially constrained to follow asubstantially linear path. One or more of the upper arm link and forearmlink includes at least one interchangeable spacer section configured tobe interchangeable with other removable spacer sections for allowing alength of a respective one of the upper arm link and forearm link to bescaled. In another aspect of the disclosed embodiment the drive sectionincludes a motor disposed at the second end of the upper arm link fordriving rotation of the forearm. In still another aspect of thedisclosed embodiment, the base arm includes an upper arm link having afirst and second ends, a forearm link having a first and second ends,and a wrist having a first and second ends, the upper arm link beingrotatably mounted to the drive section at the first end about the driveaxis, the forearm link being rotatably mounted at the first end to thesecond end of the upper arm link and the wrist being rotatably mountedat the first end to the second end of the forearm link.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment atransfer apparatus is provided for transporting substrates in a transferchamber having a first end and a second end and two sides extendingbetween the ends, each side having at least two linearly arrangedsubstrate holding stations. The transfer apparatus includes a drivesection, at least one base arm fixed at one end with respect to thetransfer chamber and including at least one arm link rotatably coupledto the drive section and at least one transfer arm rotatably coupled tothe base arm where the at least one transfer arm has two end effectors.The drive section has motors with three independent axes of rotationdefining three degrees of freedom. One degree of freedom of the drivesection moves the at least one base arm horizontally for transportingthe transfer arm within the transfer chamber and two degrees of freedomof the drive section drives the at least one transfer arm to extend theat least one transfer arm, retract the at least one transfer arm andswap the two end effectors.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetransfer apparatus is configured to transfer substrates between the atleast two linearly arranged substrate holding stations on each side ofthe transfer chamber.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetransfer chamber includes three inline load locks or four inline loadlocks located at one or more of the first and second ends of thetransfer chamber and the transfer apparatus is configured to transfersubstrates to and from the three inline load locks or four inline loadlocks.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thetransfer apparatus is configured to handle 450 mm diameter wafers.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thetransfer apparatus is configured to handle 200 mm diameter wafers, 300mm diameter wafers, or flat panels for flat panel displays, lightemitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes or solar arrays.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes at least one transfer chamber forming a substantiallysealed environment and at least one transfer apparatus disposed at leastpartly within each of the at least one transfer chamber. The at leastone transfer apparatus includes a drive section, a base arm fixed at oneend with respect to the transfer chamber and including at least one armlink rotatably coupled to the drive section and at least one transferarm rotatably coupled to a common end of the base arm, where the atleast one transfer arm has two end effectors. The drive section hasmotors with three independent axes of rotation defining three degrees offreedom. One degree of freedom of the drive section moves the base armfor transporting the at least one transfer arm horizontally within thetransfer chamber and two degrees of freedom of the drive section drivesthe at least one transfer arm to extend the at least one transfer arm,retract the at least one transfer arm, and swap the two end effectors.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment, eachof the at least one transfer chamber has a first end and a second endand two sides extending between the ends, each side having at least twolinearly arranged substrate holding stations and each end having atleast one substrate holding station and the transfer apparatus isconfigured to transfer substrates between the at least two linearlyarranged substrate holding stations on each side of the transfer chamberand to the at least one substrate holding station located on each of thefirst and second ends of the transfer chamber.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theat least one substrate holding station located one or more of the firstand second ends of the transfer chamber includes three inline load locksor four inline load locks.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate processing apparatus is configured to handle 450 mm diameterwafers.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate processing apparatus is configured to handle 200 mm diameterwafers, 300 mm diameter wafers, or flat panels for flat panel displays,light emitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes or solar arrays.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theat least one transfer chamber has a clustered configuration. In afurther aspect the clustered configuration is a dual cluster transferchamber configuration or a triple cluster transfer chamberconfiguration.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment atleast one end of the at least one transfer chamber includes an equipmentfront end module for inserting or removing substrates from the substrateprocessing apparatus.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theat least one transfer chamber includes at least two linearly elongatedtransfer chambers communicably coupled to each other to form a combinedlinearly elongated transfer chamber. In a further aspect at least oneend of the combined linearly elongated transfer chamber includes anequipment front end module for inserting or removing substrates from thesubstrate processing apparatus.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thedrive section includes a coaxial drive shaft arrangement.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thebase arm includes at least one arm link rotatably mounted at one end tothe drive section at a drive axis and the at least one transfer arm isrotatably mounted to a second opposite end of the at least one arm linkat a shoulder axis.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment, thedrive section includes a one degree of freedom drive disposed at thedrive axis and a two degree of freedom drive disposed at the shoulderaxis.

In accordance with one or more aspects of aspects of the disclosedembodiment the one degree of freedom drive comprises a harmonic drive.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetwo degree of freedom drive comprises a coaxial drive having an innerand outer drive shaft, wherein the outer drive shaft is rotatableindependent of the inner drive shaft and supported by support bearingsof the inner drive shaft.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thebase arm includes an upper arm link having a first and second ends, anda forearm link having a first and second end, the upper arm link beingrotatably mounted to the drive section at the first end about the driveaxis and the forearm link being rotatably mounted at a first end to thesecond end of the upper arm link. The at least one transfer arm beingrotatably mounted to the second end of the forearm link at the shoulderaxis of rotation. In a further aspect of the disclosed embodiment theforearm link is slaved to the drive section so that the shoulder axis ofrotation is substantially constrained to follow a substantially linearpath along a length of the at least one linearly elongated transferchamber. One or more of the upper arm link and forearm link includes atleast one interchangeable spacer section configured to beinterchangeable with other removable spacer sections for allowing alength of a respective one of the upper arm link and forearm link to bescaled. In another aspect of the disclosed embodiment the drive sectionincludes a motor disposed at the second end of the upper arm link fordriving rotation of the forearm. In still another aspect of thedisclosed embodiment, the base arm includes an upper arm link having afirst and second ends, a forearm link having a first and second ends,and a wrist having a first and second ends, the upper arm link beingrotatably mounted to the drive section at the first end about the driveaxis, the forearm link being rotatably mounted at the first end to thesecond end of the upper arm link and the wrist being rotatably mountedat the first end to the second end of the forearm link.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes at least one linearly elongated transfer chamber anda transfer apparatus disposed at least partly within the at least onelinearly elongated transfer chamber. The transfer apparatus including adrive section having a drive system with three independent axes ofrotation defining three degrees of freedom. A base arm section isrotatably coupled to the drive section and a transfer arm section isrotatably coupled to the base arm section. The transfer arm sectionhaving two end effectors. One degree of freedom of the drive sectionmoves the base arm horizontally for transporting the transfer armsection and two degrees of freedom drive the transfer arm section toextend the transfer arm section, retract the transfer arm section, andswap the two end effectors.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate processing apparatus is configured to handle 450 mm diameterwafers.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate processing apparatus is configured to handle 200 mm diameterwafers, 300 mm diameter wafers, or flat panels for flat panel displays,light emitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes or solar arrays.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate transport apparatus is provided. The substrate transportapparatus includes a drive section with three independent axes ofrotation defining three degrees of freedom, a base arm connected to thedrive section and a transfer arm having two end effectors where thetransfer arm is rotatably mounted to the base arm. One degree of freedomof the drive section moves the base arm horizontally for transportingthe transfer arm. A motor of the drive section having two degrees offreedom is configured for removable coupling to the base arm as a unitwhere when coupled to the base arm the transfer arm is coupled to themotor of the drive section having two degrees of freedom.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate transport apparatus is configured to handle 450 mm diameterwafers.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate transport apparatus is configured to handle 200 mm diameterwafers, 300 mm diameter wafers, or flat panels for flat panel displays,light emitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes or solar arrays.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment themotor of the drive section having two degrees of freedom comprises acoaxial drive having an inner and outer drive shaft, wherein the outerdrive shaft is rotatable independent of the inner drive shaft andsupported by support bearings of the inner drive shaft.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing tool is provided. The substrate processing toolincludes a polygonal transfer chamber and at least two substrate holdingstations disposed on each side of the transfer chamber. At least twosubstrate transport apparatus are disposed at least partly within thetransport chamber. Each of the at least two substrate transportapparatus including a base arm rotatably mounted within the transportchamber at a drive axis and at least one transfer arm having two endeffectors rotatably mounted on the base arm. Each base arm beingindependently rotatable about the drive axis and the at least onetransfer arm being independently rotatable relative to a respective basearm so that an axis of extension and retraction of each transfer arm iscapable of transferring substrates between the transfer arm and any ofthe substrate holding stations.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate processing tool is configured to handle 450 mm diameterwafers.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiments thesubstrate processing tool is configured to handle 200 mm diameterwafers, 300 mm diameter wafers, or flat panels for flat panel displays,light emitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes or solar arrays.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment eachsubstrate transport apparatus includes a one degree of freedom drivemotor configured to rotatably drive the base arm and a two degree offreedom drive motor configured to effect rotation, extension andretraction of the at least one transfer arm independent of the base arm.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes a composite transfer chamber including a grid formedof a two-dimensional array of interconnected transfer chamber moduleswhere each transfer chamber module is selectively sealable from otherones of the transfer chamber modules. One or more substrate holdingstations are communicably coupled to each of the transfer chambermodules. Each transfer chamber module including a transfer arm disposedtherein for transporting substrates between the transfer chamber modulesand substrate holding stations communicably coupled to the compositetransfer chamber.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetwo dimensional array of interconnected transfer chamber modulescomprises at least a two-by-two array of transfer chamber modules.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus includes multiple horizontal levels ofsubstrate holding stations.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing tool is provided. The substrate processing toolincludes a polygonal transfer chamber and at least two substrate holdingstations disposed on each side of the transfer chamber. At least onesubstrate transport apparatus are disposed at least partly within thetransport chamber. Each of the at least one substrate transportapparatus including a hub spacer link, the hub spacer link being coupledto a hub mounted within the transport chamber at a drive axis and atleast one transfer arm is rotatably mounted on the hub spacer link. Thehub being rotatably indexable so that an axis of extension andretraction of each transfer arm is capable of transferring substratesbetween the transfer arm and any of the substrate holding stations. Amotor module is disposed at an end of each hub spacer link opposite thehub for driving the at least one transfer arm.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes a composite transfer chamber having at least a firstand second transfer chamber modules disposed side by side andcommunicably coupled to each other and a third transfer chamber moduleextending alongside the first and second transfer chamber modules, thethird transfer chamber module being communicably coupled to both thefirst and second transfer chamber modules. At least one substrateholding station is communicably coupled to each of the first, second andthird transfer chamber modules. Each of the first, second and thirdtransfer chamber modules having at least one transfer arm disposedtherein for transporting substrates between the at least one substrateholding station and the first second and third transfer chamber modules.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thethird transfer chamber module includes a drive section and at least onebase arm fixed at one end with respect to the third transfer chamber andincluding at least one arm link rotatably coupled to the drive section.The at least one transfer arm of the third transfer chamber module beingrotatably coupled to a common end of the base arm where the at least onetransfer arm has two end effectors. The drive section has motors withthree independent axes of rotation defining three degrees of freedom.One degree of freedom of the drive section moves the at least one basearm horizontally for transporting the at least one transfer arm withinthe third transfer chamber module and two degrees of freedom of thedrive section drives the at least one transfer arm to extend the atleast one transfer arm, retract the at least one transfer arm and swapthe two end effectors.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment, asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes a transport tunnel and an automation modulecommunicably coupled to the transport tunnel. The automation moduleincludes a first end and a second end and two sides extending betweenthe ends, each side having at least two connection ports and at leastone of the ends being coupled to the transport tunnel where the at leasttwo connection ports of at least one side of the automation module isconfigured for connection to a cluster tool module. The automationmodule further includes a transfer apparatus having a drive section, atleast one base arm fixed at one end with respect to the transfer chamberand including at least one arm link rotatably coupled to the drivesection and at least one transfer arm rotatably coupled to a common endof the base arm where the at least one transfer arm has at least one endeffector.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment, theat least one transfer arm includes two end effectors and the drivesection has motors with three independent axes of rotation definingthree degrees of freedom. One degree of freedom of the drive sectionmoves the at least one base arm horizontally for transporting the atleast one transfer arm within the transfer chamber and two degrees offreedom of the drive section drives the at least one transfer arm toextend the at least one transfer arm, retract the at least one transferarm and swap the two end effectors.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes a transport tunnel and at least one module coupled tothe transport tunnel. The transport tunnel includes at least onetransport cart configured to travel between longitudinal ends of thetransport tunnel where the at least one transport cart includes asubstantially rigid substrate holder stationarilly mounted to thetransport cart. The substantially rigid substrate holder is configuredto extend beyond at least one of the longitudinal ends of the transporttunnel when the transport cart is disposed adjacent to the at least oneof the longitudinal ends for transferring substrates between thetransport cart and the at least one module.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus further includes an automation modulehaving a first end and a second end and two sides extending between theends, each side having at least two connection ports and at least one ofthe ends being coupled to the transport tunnel. The automation modulefurther includes a transfer apparatus having a drive section, at leastone base arm fixed at one end with respect to the transfer chamber andincluding at least one arm link rotatably coupled to the drive sectionand at least one transfer arm rotatably coupled to a common end of thebase arm where the at least one transfer arm has at least one endeffector. The transfer apparatus being configured to extend through theat least two connection ports on each side and beyond at least one ofthe first and second end. The automation module being communicablyconnected to the transport tunnel at one of the first and second end.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus includes a processing tool module coupledto the two connection ports on at least one of the sides of theautomation module.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus includes an equipment front end module(EFEM) where the transport tunnel communicably connects the equipmentfront end module and the automation module.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus includes a second transport tunnelcommunicably connected to the other one of the first and second end ofthe automation module and connecting the automation module with anotherautomation module.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetransport tunnel includes one or more tunnel modules.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment atleast one of the one or more tunnel modules is sealable from other onesof the one or more tunnel modules.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes an automation module and a connecting modulecommunicably connected to the automation module where the automationmodule includes a first end and a second end and two sides extendingbetween the ends, each side having at least two connection ports and atleast one of the ends being coupled to the connecting module. Theautomation module further includes a transfer apparatus having a drivesection, at least one base arm fixed at one end with respect to thetransfer chamber and including at least one arm link rotatably coupledto the drive section and at least one transfer arm rotatably coupled toa common end of the base arm where the at least one transfer arm has atleast one end effector. The transfer apparatus being configured toextend through the at least two connection ports on each side and beyondat least one of the first and second end.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theat least two connection ports of at least one side of the automationmodule are configured for connection to a cluster tool module.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus includes an equipment front end modulewhere the connecting module communicably connects the equipment frontend module to the automation module.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theconnecting module comprises one or more of a vacuum module and atransport tunnel.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment theconnecting module comprises a transport tunnel having at least onetransport cart disposed therein and configured to travel betweenlongitudinal ends of the transport tunnel.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus includes a processing tool module coupledto the two connection ports on at least one of the sides of theautomation module.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thetransfer apparatus of the automation module is configured to transport asubstrate from the connecting module through every one of the portslocated on the sides of the automation module with substantially asingle touching of the substrate.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment asubstrate processing apparatus is provided. The substrate processingapparatus includes a housing forming a chamber capable of holding asealed environment therein and having substrate port openings throughwhich substrates are transported in and out of the chamber. The housinghaving sides that define a mating interface for mating with a side of aprocess tool assembly. At least one side of the housing having more thanone of the substrate transport openings in common with substratetransport openings in a side of the process tool assembly mated to themating interface at the substrate transport openings and defining anequipment boundary between the housing and the process tool assembly,wherein different processing tool assemblies having differentpredetermined characteristics are interchangeably mateable to the matinginterface of the housing.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosed embodiment thesubstrate processing apparatus includes a transport apparatus disposedat least partly within the housing. The transport apparatus includes abase link and at least one transport arm mounted on the base linkoperable to transport substrates through the substrate port openingsinto the process tool assembly for transfer of the substrate to atransfer apparatus of the process tool assembly.

It should be understood that the foregoing description is onlyillustrative of the aspects of the disclosed embodiment. Variousalternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in theart without departing from the aspects of the disclosed embodiment.Accordingly, the aspects of the disclosed embodiment are intended toembrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances. Further, themere fact that different features are recited in the mutually differentdependent or independent claims does not indicate that a combination ofthese features cannot be advantageously used, such a combinationremaining within the scope of the aspects of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A substrate processing apparatus comprising: atransport chamber having at least one lateral side, the at least onelateral side having at least two substrate transport ports arranged sideby side; a drive section connected to the chamber, the drive sectionhaving motors with three independent axes of rotation; and a substratetransport apparatus mounted inside the transport chamber, the substratetransport apparatus including a base arm link being operably coupled tothe drive section and having an axis of rotation disposed at one end ofthe base arm link, the base arm link being pivotally mounted inside thetransport chamber at the axis of rotation that forms the axis ofrotation of the base arm link, and which is disposed in a fixed locationwithin the transport chamber, and two transfer arms, each transfer armrespectively having a corresponding substrate holder dependingindependently from the respective transfer arm, and each transfer armbeing pivotally mounted to another end of the base arm link at anotheraxis of rotation, the other axis of rotation being a common axis ofrotation, with respect to the base arm link, that is common to the twotransfer arms; wherein each transfer arm is coupled to the drive sectionso that each transfer arm is coupled independently to and rotatedindependently by a different independent drive axis from the threeindependent drive axes of the drive section, for independent rotation ofeach transfer arm relative to another one of the two transfer arms aboutthe common axis of rotation, and effecting with each respective transferarm independent transport of substrates on the corresponding substrateholder through each of the at least two substrate transport portsarranged side by side.
 2. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1,wherein: the transport chamber includes a first end and a second endwhere the at least one lateral side extends between the first end andthe second end, at least one of the first end and second end includingat least two other substrate transport ports arranged side by side; andthe substrate transport apparatus is configured to transfer substratesbetween the at least two substrate transport ports on the at least onelateral side and the at least two other substrate transport ports on theat least one of the first end and the second end.
 3. The substrateprocessing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the drive section includes acoaxial drive shaft arrangement.
 4. The substrate processing apparatusof claim 1, wherein the drive section includes a z-axis drive configuredto linearly move the substrate transport apparatus in a directionsubstantially perpendicular to an axis of extension and retraction ofthe two transfer arms.
 5. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1,wherein the substrate transport apparatus is configured to handle 450 mmdiameter wafers.
 6. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1,wherein the substrate transport apparatus is configured to handle 200 mmdiameter wafers, 300 mm diameter wafers, flat panels for flat paneldisplays, light emitting diodes, organic light emitting diodes or solararrays.
 7. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein thebase arm link is a substantially rigid unarticulated link from the axisof rotation to the common axis of rotation.
 8. The substrate processingapparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the two transfer arms isindependently rotatable, with the corresponding substrate holderdependent therefrom, as a unit about the common axis.
 9. The substrateprocessing apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at leasttwo substrate transport ports is radially offset relative to the axis ofrotation.
 10. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein theat least two substrate transport ports arranged side by side include afirst substrate transport port with an associated first substratetransport path and a second substrate transport port with an associatedsecond substrate transport path and wherein the axis of rotation of thebase arm link is located substantially between the first and secondsubstrate transport paths.
 11. A method for transporting substrates, themethod comprising: providing a substrate transport apparatus mountedinside a transport chamber where the transport chamber includes at leasttwo side by side substrate transport ports disposed on at least onelateral side of the transport chamber, and where the substrate transportapparatus includes a base arm link being operably coupled to the drivesection and having an axis of rotation disposed at one end of the basearm link, the base arm link being pivotally mounted inside the transportchamber at the axis of rotation that forms the axis of rotation of thebase arm link, and is disposed in a fixed location within the transportchamber, and two transfer arms, each transfer arm having a correspondingsubstrate holder depending independently from a respective transfer arm,and each transfer arm being pivotally mounted to another end of the basearm link at another axis of rotation, the other axis of rotation being acommon axis of rotation, with respect to the base arm link, that iscommon to the two transfer arms; independently rotating each transferarm relative to another one of the two transfer arms about the commonaxis of rotation, where each transfer arm is coupled to the drivesection so that each transfer arm is coupled independently to andindependently rotated by different independent drive axes of a drivesection operably coupled to the two transfer arms and having threeindependent axes of rotation; and independently transporting substrateswith each respective transfer arm so that a first transfer arm of thetwo transfer arms independently transports a substrate carried on thecorresponding substrate holder of the first transfer arm through a firstone of the at least two side by side substrate transport ports and asecond transfer arm of the two substrate transfer arms independentlytransports a substrate carried by the corresponding substrate holder ofthe second transfer arm through the first one of the at least two sideby side substrate transport ports or a second one of the at least twoside by side substrate transport ports.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein the transport chamber includes a first end and a second endwhere the at least one lateral side extends between the first end andthe second end, at least one of the first end and second end includingat least two other substrate transport ports arranged side by side, themethod further comprising: transferring substrates between the at leasttwo substrate transport ports on the at least one lateral side and atleast two other substrate transport ports on at least one of the firstend and the second end.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the drivesection includes a coaxial drive shaft arrangement.
 14. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising linearly moving the substrate transportapparatus, with a z-axis drive of the drive section, in a directionsubstantially perpendicular to an axis of extension and retraction ofthe two transfer arms.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein the substratetransport apparatus is configured to handle 450 mm diameter wafers. 16.The method of claim 11, wherein the substrate transport apparatus isconfigured to handle 200 mm diameter wafers, 300 mm diameter wafers,flat panels for flat panel displays, light emitting diodes, organiclight emitting diodes or solar arrays.
 17. The method of claim 11,wherein the base arm link is a substantially rigid unarticulated linkfrom the axis of rotation to the common axis of rotation.
 18. The methodof claim 11, further comprising independently rotating each of the twotransfer arms, with a respective substrate holder dependent therefrom,as a unit about the common axis.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein atleast one of the at least two substrate transport ports is radiallyoffset relative to the axis of rotation.
 20. The method of claim 11,wherein the at least two substrate transport ports are arranged side byside and include a first substrate transport port with an associatedfirst substrate transport path and a second substrate transport portwith an associate second substrate transport path and wherein, the axisof rotation of the base arm link is located substantially between thefirst and second substrate transport paths.